amyvl93's reviews
898 reviews

Prophet Song is the 2023 winner of the Booker Prize and whilst an interesting read is by no means my favourite Booker-winner that I have read. It follows Eilish, a microbiologist and mother of four, living in a not-to-distance Ireland. She's just returning to work following the birth of her fourth child when her husband Larry, who works in education unions, is invited in for questioning by the police following an election of a new government. From there we sink further into a nationalist regime, Larry disappears and the country descends into civil war.

This is no doubt an interesting thought experiment, and there are moments that Lynch brings to the page which are really effective. The shifting in media avaliability, the moments of protest being hit by violence, the last quarter of the novel in particular as Eilish (finally) recognises the real desperation that her family are in have really stuck with me. However, I was left feeling slightly disconcerted by a narrative which 'imagines' events that are happening in countries now - and I'm not sure if this could have been more effective if Lynch had positioned this novel in one of those many places (this bought to mind The Beekeeper of Aleppo for example). I also found it strange that Ireland's history of occupation and violence was not mentioned in the pages of this novel, when I think it would still be in the memories of many of the characters in the novel.

As hinted at above, I found Eilish a slightly frustrating protagonist to be following, who seemed entirely oblivious to the reality of the world around her. Unlike the protaganist in Black Butterflies, who similarly remains in a war zone past the point of being able to flee, we don't get a sense of what keeps Eilish where she is - aside from her commitment to the men in her family. She is a scientist, a woman whose career is based on evidence, who seemingly ditches this the moment her husband leaves. The children are generally well-drawn, although I felt that Molly was poorly served by a narrative that focused on her brothers and sidelined her. I particularly liked Lynch's portrayal of Eilish's father, he felt an effective additional character to the narrative, and the reminder that multiple crisis can hit at once, as he appears to be struggling with the arrival of dementia.

As others have reflected, Lynch's writing veers from the impactful and effective to the deeply overwritten - I could have done with slightly fewer musings on darkness, and Eilish's children's faces - I think sometimes these descriptions undermined the strength of Lynch's narrative.

All in all, this is a fine novel - and if it's setting means more people pick this up than would pick up a refugee narrative than that is fine, but I'm surprised by it's Booker winning status.

My final listen of 2024 was Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister which I found to be totally engaging and fascinating. I really enjoyed Jung Chang's Wild Swans which I read back in 2017, which was a memoir of the women in her family living in China. This book takes a similar approach, exploring the 20th century in China via the lives of the fascinating Soong sisters.

Despite studying this period of history before, I somehow had never come across the Soong's - who were all deeply embedded in the changes in power within the country. One sister, Ching-ling marries Sun Yat-sen, the 'father' of modern China who took power following the introduction of a republic before finding Communism, one, May-ling, marries Chiang Kai-Shek, the pre-Mao leader of China. Finally, Ei-ling becomes one of the wealthiest women in China, maintaining influence over both political leaders.

I found this to be an engaging and very personal look at the three women - bought to life via their numerous letters and correspondence. I appreciated how Chang showed how these women were both independent thinkers in their own right, as well as being used by male leaders for their own ends. I would have liked Chang to interrogate their actions a little more - particularly Ei-ling who isn't as central to the narrative as the book progresses but has many fingers in pies which are slightly under explained.

The thing that got in the way of me enjoying this totally was the audiobook version I listened to on Spotify was narrated by a very posh lady, who seemed to pronounce every Chinese name/location as if she had literally never seen that word before. I would love for this to be given an audiobook that has the flow it deserves.

A slightly random inclusion for me, as I haven't read any middle grade fiction since I was about that age myself. However, one of my favourite TikTokkers is Meet Me in the Media Centre, and Swim Team is one of the libraries most checked out novels, so I had to give it a whirl!

This is a super cute read about a girl who moves with her Dad to a new state and school, and who is forced into swimming due to the full class schedules. She discovers new friends, skills and herself through participating. The book also sensitively tackles segregation and the lack of access many black people have had to community resources like swimming pools over the past decades.

Super cute - and reminded me how much I do enjoy graphic novels. 

At no point did I have a clue where this narrative was going and I mean that in the most complimentary way to Eliza Clark. This is a startling, dark novel following Irina - a photographer who produces sexually violent pictures of men that she scouts in the shops, bars, public transport and streets of Newcastle.

Irina as a protagonist is often darkly funny - there were moments of her narrative that made me snort with laughter - but mostly reprehensible. She's obsessive about her body and appearance, treats her best friend pretty terribly and loathes the men that she photographs. She is the ultimate unreliable narrator - often contradicting her thoughts and behaviours. There were moments were I did wish we had a bit more of a rationale for her behaviour - whilst there are hints at what may be motivating her I think really just allowing Irina to be unhinged gives Clark potentially more space to make points through her narrative.

Clark's writing is pacy and has a sense of general foreboding throughout. She so easily draws the multitude of characters and relationships within the novel which I found fascinating. Clark also definitely has points to make about gendered violence and sexual politics, and who gets to have what 'gaze' when it comes to gender. I did find some plot lines petered out in a way that I didn't always find satisfying, and I'm still trying to work out what I think about the ending.

Either way, I'm super excited to pick up Penance in 2025.

I loved Midnight Chicken and The Year of Miracles was just as wonderful a read.

A cookbook and memoir in one, this book follows Risbridger grieving the loss of her ex-boyfriend from cancer, moving into a new home and falling in love again; against the backdrop of the Covid years. The food in here both sounds delicious and comforting, and Risbridger's writing is glorious - and avoids much of the twee-ness I found in her first book.

Loved this and will be joining her Substack in the New Year!

Such a brilliant collection of short stories - I was in awe of how Evans could form wholly realised characters and histories within so few words and pages. Loved this and will be keen to read more of what Evans has written.

I adore everything Rooney writes and Intermezzo was no exception. This novel follows two brothers, Peter and Ivan, in the aftermath of their father's death. The two brothers are ten years apart, and apart in many other ways too. Peter is a successful solicitor in civil rights cases and university lecturer, torn between two women - an ex-girlfriend from his past and one much younger in the present, whilst Ivan is a former chess prodigy, floundering in his identity and beginning a relationship with an older woman.

There is so much packed into this novel about power, about gender, about masculinity, about grief and love and what happens when that is all smashed together. Peter and Ivan are interchangeably awful to each other, to themselves and to those around them, whilst also never being totally alienating as characters that you spend time with. Rooney gives them both completely different writing styles - Ivan's is told in more controlled third person prose, whilst Peter is presented in stream of conscious, a perfect manifestation of his lack of control hidden beneath his smart suits and functional alcoholism.

I was slightly disappointed that whilst Margaret, the older woman who Ivan begins dating within the text, is given space to explore her own thoughts and feelings - Sylvie (Peter's former girlfriend) and Naomi (his younger current girlfriend) are not given the same space and are seen just through the eyes of Ivan and Peter which was unfortunate. I found them both to be interesting women, and Rooney does well to counter some of the stereotypes you may relate to both of them - but I would have liked to hear more from them.

All in all, really enjoyed Intermezzo and so excited for whatever Rooney does next.

This book is very much a cosy read. It follows Bella, who is rapidly approaching her 30th birthday and is a witch - though keeps her magic very much under wraps. When she's approached by her coven to test her magic, she is pulled away from her life with her housemate and job in a bookstore, to unravel some secrets and find herself.

I've followed Lucy Jane Wood online for a long time and so was keen to pick this up - and the cover was gorgeous. I found this to be a super easy read, and the magic system is fairly well drawn. I did wish there was a tad more detail woven into the novel, but we are working with a protagonist who has hidden away form her magic for a long time. I liked the concept of the magic trials, and enjoyed the focus on familial and friendship relationships that are drawn through this novel.

I did find that the characterisation wasn't as strong as I had hoped it would be - I couldn't work out if I found Bella a believable person to be similar age to me, and I found her decisions at times to be pretty puzzling. There's also the introduction of of a romance which and romantic interest that didn't really work for me - Wood did seem to hint in one of her videos that Rune wasn't necessarily always a love interest which makes sense as to why it felt a bit left field. I would have preferred Bella's story to be focused on her growing into herself without necessarily the help of a man.

At times I also found the writing a bit twee, Wood's clearly a talented writer but some sentences were quite overwritten and sometimes felt more YA than adult fantasy fiction writing.

This was a cosy wintery read, and an enjoyable time - but think I'll wait for the paperback release of Wood's next novel.