by Sarah Tinsley | May 27, 2023 | Reviews
This one’s pretty special. Years ago I was at a Byte The Book event when I met Nadia Attia. We bonded over our shared hatred of networking and our frustrations with the publishing world. So I was utterly delighted when the release of her debut novel popped up on...
by Sarah Tinsley | Mar 17, 2023 | Reviews
I confess, while I was reading this book, it got stains on it. There’s a splash of coffee near the beginning, while I was getting to know 14-year-old Jackie and her turbulent home. I was trying to turn the page and stir my milk in at the same time. There’s...
by Sarah Tinsley | Mar 10, 2023 | Reviews
I like to be surprised. My assumption is that crime fiction is formulaic and a little bit cheesy. Clearly I had some bad experiences as a young reader! However, in Jon Barton’s Dive, I found myself surprised continually throughout the book at both the turns of...
by Sarah Tinsley | Jan 13, 2023 | Reviews
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were benevolent forces around us, helping us cope with difficult times? In The Plankton Collector by Cath Barton, a mysterious ‘everyman’ visits a family to help them come to terms with grief and loss. Barton takes...
by Sarah Tinsley | Nov 25, 2022 | Reviews
From the moment you enter the world of The Regeneration of Stella Yin, a novella-in-flash by Kristen Loesch, you are in an immersive and dark place. From instructions on how to make a shrine, to an interview about AI, to a welcome letter to a remote island project,...
by Sarah Tinsley | Nov 11, 2022 | Reviews
I’m always enthusiastic about any writing that celebrates women. In Jesi Bender’s poetry collection Dangerous Women, she categorises her subjects by the perceived ‘danger’ they pose to society, through their freedom, their status or their...