Category: review
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, family drama, fiction, journal, literature, loss, memoir, relationships, review, sisters
The Lost Girls by Heather Young
In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost … Read More The Lost Girls by Heather Young
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, friendship, motherhood, murder, review
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
“So that was all it took,” I thought. “That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn’t so much after all.” Meet Chrissie… Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. … Read More The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
+ autism, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, love, motherhood, review
This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely. Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy, and she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants. Violetta is a high-class … Read More This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
When you are really busy it’s time for the actors to improvise. And they really do. Absolutely hilarious The Last Minute Play has some of my favourite lines. “Is that a new car…”“….lime green….really brings out your eyes Pitrum.”“Shame I’ve only got the one really.”“Beautiful eye though.” “It’s always easier to recover from grief when it makes you filthy, stinking rich.” And of course … Read More The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, folklore, friendship, loss, love, magic, Magical realism, motherhood, mythology, review, supernatural, superstition
She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
Told by four women whose stories nest together, She Never Told Me About the Ocean is an epic about a rite of passage that all humans undergo and none remember: birth. Eighteen-year-old Sage has been mothering her mother for as long as she can remember, and as she arrives on the shores of adulthood, she learns a secret: before she was born, she had … Read More She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
A Little Chicken by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
Mary had a little chicken. Mary is eight years old and she doesn’t eat meat or so she claims. And anyway she has a pet chicken who is not a little lamb. Chicken soup isn’t meat is it and it’s her favourite. The Pot Chicken likes people soup. It’s his favourite. And The Pot Chicken is quite big and not like other chickens. Written … Read More A Little Chicken by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ adventure, art, coming-of-age, female friendship, feminism, fiction, friendship, Italy, literature, love, relationships, review, World War Two
Still Life by Sarah Winman
By the bestselling, prize-winning author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a beautiful, big-hearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood… and the ghost of E.M. Forster. We just need to know what the heart’s capable of, Evelyn.And do you know what it’s capable of?I do. Grace and fury. It’s 1944 and in … Read More Still Life by Sarah Winman
Put to Sea by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
There once was a boat. Hilarious short audio drama as Mils and Shan are out at sea in a boat that they ‘commandeered’ in order to make a TikTok film. But will they survive the ordeal with no snacks and only themed beverages and nowhere to pee? The GPS is being weird, it’s a bit foggy and they don’t know where they are. And … Read More Put to Sea by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin
In the dying days of the old asylums, three paths intersect. Henry was only a boy when he waved goodbye to his glamorous grown-up sister; approaching sixty, his life is still on hold as he awaits her return. As a high-society hostess renowned for her recitals, Matty’s burden weighs heavily upon her, but she bears it with fortitude and grace. Janice, a young social … Read More Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin
+ child abduction, child abuse, community, crime fiction, cult, female friendship, fiction, hostage, kidnapping, murder, rape, revenge, review, serial killer, sisters, thriller
Binding Lies (Finley Series#3) by Mariëtte Whitcomb
There is nothing a mother wouldn’t do to protect her children. They think they’ve won. Good. While I try my best not to kill Gabriel, Aidan is hunting down the person responsible for destroying our lives; the one we call the Puppet Master. Separate but, united, Aidan and I continue to fight our enemies, desperate to reclaim what they stole from us. #BindingLiesTheNovel #FinleySeries … Read More Binding Lies (Finley Series#3) by Mariëtte Whitcomb
+ community, fiction, friendship, gay community, love, mid-life crisis, relationships, review, romance, sixties
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
It’s never too late to start your life’s big adventure . . . Albert Entwistle was a postman. It was one of the few things everyone knew about him. And it was one of the few things he was comfortable with people knowing. 64-year-old Albert Entwistle has been a postie in a quiet town in Northern England for all his life, living alone since … Read More The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
+ brothers, Catholic Church, childhood, coming-of-age, convent school, family, fiction, friends, friendship, girl's school, Ireland, literature, religion, review, sixties
Emmet and Me by by Sara Gethin
Summer 1966: When her father comes home with lipstick on his collar, ten-year-old Claire’s life is turned upside down. Her furious mother leaves the family and heads to London, and Claire and her brothers are packed off to Ireland, to their reclusive grandmother at her tiny cottage on the beautifully bleak coast of Connemara. #EmmetAndMe @SGethinWriter @honno @annecater @RandomTTours A misfit among her new … Read More Emmet and Me by by Sara Gethin
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