Doubleday Archives

Book review: Fire by John Boyne

December 25, 20242 min read

Fire by John Boyne is the latest in the ‘elements’ series and there are a few references to all four [elements] here. But I need start by saying this book is A LOT. Boyne hasn’t shied away from contentious and sensitive issues in this series. In Water we were introduced to a pedophile swim coach; in Earth a young talented soccer player who did what he needed to get ahead got embroiled in a sexual assault.* Here, it’s… well I can’t really say as it would be a huge spoiler but our lead character is a prominent burns specialist, Freya, who lives a very tightly-controlled life, much of which was shaped by her own childhood and an event she continues to relive.

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Book review: The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

October 12, 20242 min read

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins seems to be garnering similar commentary in most of its reviews… that it’s an atmospheric slow burn. And it certainly is. It’s one of those books that’s hard to describe. Not crime fiction. Not a thriller. Not really even a novel of suspense, though that probably is the closest moniker.

It’s a bit like unpicking a large knot. You know you’ll get to the centre eventually but not quite sure what you’ll find there. Perhaps nothing at all? Like stalled traffic with no cause – no accident or blockages on which to blame it. Or will there be something there, frayed rope or debris at its core? It means there’s a lot of pressure on the final reveal because expectations are heightened. And did Hawkins give us the climax we were after. For me, kinda.

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Book review: Earth by John Boyne

April 17, 20244 min read

Earth by John Boyne is the second in the loosely linked series. I read Water in late 2023 and it was a tumultuous read. I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed it but cried when closing the book on discovering that another in the series was coming.

Earth didn’t have quite the same impact but Boyne again manages to unfurl a complex and tragic backstory as shocking events unfold in the present. Here, the focus is Evan – who we briefly meet in Water – which ends as he’s escaping the small Irish island that was his home.

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Book review: A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

August 30, 20212 min read

Zimbabwean-born, London-dwelling author Paula Hawkins is best-known for her debut novel, The Girl on the Train, a book which seemingly paved the way for a slew of unreliable narrators in popular fiction.

A Slow Fire Burning is her third novel and again she offers us strong, flawed and sometimes-unlikeable female characters. In fact there are several on offer here as – like Hawkins’s second book, Into the Water – this unfolds from multiple points of view all offering very different voices, personalities and views on life.

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Book review: Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

May 24, 20205 min read

I don’t read non-fiction. On the whole I dislike memoirs intensely. I hear great things about some, such as Michelle Obama’s Becoming or Reckoning by Magda Szubanski. And yet… I avoid them like the plague. I’ve made some recent attempts (Bri Lee’s Beauty and Clare Bowditch’s Your Own Kind of Girl) but they either feel like a university case study or I struggle with their logic and structure. Although, perhaps I’m just too self-absorbed to be that interested in someone else’s life. Who knows?

I would normally have eschewed Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, assuming it to be yet another memoir. But thankfully a book-blogging friend Simon (Written by Sime) had mentioned this book and his love for it a while ago. So I knew it was fiction. About the road not taken. A reimagining if you like.

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Book review: The Second Wife by Rebecca Fleet

March 5, 20202 min read

This book wasn’t at all what I expected. Given the title I was expecting some first wife vs second wife battle rife with petty jealousy and sneaky sabotage.

Had I been the sort of person to check the backcover blurb before reading I would have had a better idea what was coming, but I tend to dive straight in when I choose my nightly reading fodder, so I was pleasantly surprised (as am a bit over bitchy wives’ tales).

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Book review: Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

June 16, 20193 min read

I’ve actually not read any books in Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. Which was a little worrying cos I hate entering series part-way through… and I’ve moaned about that before, so won’t go into it again. Thankfully it wasn’t an issue here as I was able to play along at home without having missed too much context.

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Book review: Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

July 21, 20184 min read

I don’t tend to read historical fiction unless it’s intermingled with the present, so this book didn’t jump out at me when it arrived (despite the Australian edition’s beautiful cover). However, I decided I’d give it a go as there was something about the blurb that made me think about Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery, Evil Under the Sun or The Mystery of the Blue Train.

Fatal Inheritance by Tammy Cohen (writing as Rachel Rhys) wasn’t really a hardcore whodunit requiring a Belgian detective or woolly but whip-smart spinster however. Instead it’s an intriguing story with delightful characters and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

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