Author: sleeplesseditor

Review: The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry

The Essex Serpent

The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
Release Date: 27/05/2016
Publisher (UK): Serpent’s Tail
Pages: 432pp RRP: £14.99 (Hardback)
Kindle version available here (£6.99)

It’s been pretty difficult to avoid The Essex Serpent over the last few months. From whisperings of potential award nominations to even bookshop murals of the fantastic cover jacket, Sarah Perry’s second novel seems to be making quite the impact. Her debut novel, After Me Comes the Flood (2014), demonstrated her passion for Gothic literature (stemming from her PhD on the Gothic elements in the works of Iris Murdoch), a delicate and evocative writing style, and an ability to create memorable landscapes – all of which are on display here. After finishing it earlier today, I have to say that it’s got what it takes to make the shortlist of quite a few awards in the near future.

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Review: My Name is Leon – Kit de Waal

My Name is Leon

My Name is Leon – Kit De Waal
Release Date: 02/06/2016
Publisher (UK): Penguin Books
Pages: 272pp RRP: £12.99 (Hardback)
Epub version available here (£7.99)

If I have to say one thing about Kit de Waal’s debut novel, it’s this: read it, read it now. This story, told from the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, is a beautifully crafted piece about love, developing a sense of identity, and the intimate impacts of the child fostering system in the early 1980s.

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Review: Zero K – Don Delillo

 

Zero K[1]

Zero K – Don Delillo
Release Date: 19/05/2016
Publisher (UK): Picador
Pages: 288pp RRP: £16.99 (Hardback)
Epub edition available here (£8.79)

Zero K is a book wholly focused on the end. Don Delillo has come close to this topic in his previous works, but here he has chosen to focus on death, and what the real point of it is. Whilst he may fall short of providing a satisfying answer, he still offers us something to consider.

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Recommended Reading (Early 2016)

Given that I originally planned to get this website up and running earlier in the year, I thought I should share a few personal recommendations for books released over the last few months.

Your Heart is a Muscle_

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
Release Date: 04/02/2016
Publisher (UK): Little Brown Book Group
Pages: 320pp RRP: £14.99 (Hardback)
Kindle edition available here (£7.99)

When a debut novel opens by dropping the reader into the thick of a major protest – in this case the WTO Protests of 1999 (also known as the Battle of Seattle), and then powers along with a vibrant narrative throughout – it’s hard not to take notice. Sunil Yapa has made some waves with this piece, and I can see why.

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Review: The Association of Small Bombs – Karan Mahajan

Mahajan Cover

Release Date: 14/07/2016 (Paperback)
Publisher (UK): Vintage Publishing
Pages: 288pp RRP: £12.99 (Available for pre-order)
Kindle edition available here (pre-order): £9.49

To see a novel handle the traumatic ripple effect of a terrorist bombing so elegantly is a rare thing. To see a novel interweave issues such as family dynamics, religion, sexuality, class and ethnicity into that narrative so effectively is almost unheard of: a nuanced portrayal of the class of living dead.

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It begins…

Well, this is new.

To start things off, a brief explanation of just who I am. I’m Josh and I’ve been working in publishing as a freelancer for a number of years, and with a number of publishers on an eclectic mix of books – some good, some weird, some downright strange. I’ve been enjoying my work, but I’ve been looking to expand into other projects for some time.

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