Category: Book Reviews
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Review: Not With a Bang – Temi Oh
An end of the world drama with beautiful family dynamics. I’m not actively drawn to end of the world media but I really enjoyed this one, Temi Oh’s writing is beautiful.
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Review: Son of the Morning – Akwaeke Emezi
Deals with the devil never tend to end well, especially when the fate of the earth is at risk. I had a lot of fun with this despite it not being a genre I’m not a fan of.
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Review: A Girl Like Her – Talia Hibbert
The town outcast and town golden retriever guy end up living next door to each other. This small town romance is bursting with heart and soul!
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Review: Rootless – Krystle Zara Appiah
Efe and Sam were meant to be together, they just were never there at the right time. A book that has truly broken me but I couldn’t recommend more, just stunning.
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Review: James – Percival Everett
James retells the Mark Twain’s The Tales of Huckleberry Finn from his untold perspective. Thoroughly enjoyable and I can’t recommend on audio enough.
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Review: Celestial Lights – Cecile Pin
Celestial Lights follows Ollie as he’s going where no man has gone before, to Jupiter’s moon to search for life. More exquisite writing from Pin that starts gentle but leaves a heavy hole after finishing.
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Review: Brielle and Bear – Salomey Doku
A beautifully illustrated graphic novel duology, set at university which romance at its’ core. I come away from these smiling so much!
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Review: Kin – Tayari Jones
Two motherless girls, raised side by side until their lives take them in different directions. An unforgettable tale of sisterhood.
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Review: Havisham – Elle Machray
You’ll know of Miss Havisham through Dickens’ Great Expectations but get ready to find out who she was and could be when women write their own stories. One of my favourite reads of the year, a stunning reworking of one of literacy’s most ignored women.
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Review: The Quiet Girls – Dorothy Koomson
Dr Kez Lanyon is back and this time in a dark academia setting, under cover of a school girls disappearance. I adored it, Koomson is the Queen of the thriller for a reason.
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Review: The Killing Spell – Shay Kauwe
A first of it’s kind: Hawaiian inspired fantasy with a magic systemic focusing on the importance of language. This was a lot of fun and fans of Babel will definitely enjoy this.
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Review: Strangerland – Monika Radojevic
Strangerland proves that love can transcend language, borders and whole oceans. Radojevic’s debut is a roaring success, readers will be incredibly moved by this one.
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Review: Black Dolls – Rachel Faturoti & Flo Woolley
It’s Battle of the Bands for Black pop-punk band Black Dolls and tensions are rising! A perfect mash up of Chinchilla’s Little Girl Gone and the TV show We Are Lady Parts.
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Review: Good Dirt – Charmaine Wilkerson
The fate of one jar ripples through history with this multi-generational story centring family legacy. This is Wilkerson’s best work yet and I’m so excited to see what comes next for her, do not miss this.
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Review: I Dreamed of You – Pim Wangtechawat
How does friendship fare when dreams and hopes of romance are involved? A beautifully light and delicate literary novel, set in beautiful Edinburgh.
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Review: I Can’t Even Think Straight – Dean Atta
Coming out for Kai didn’t quite go as planned, but the freedom he finds makes it all worthwhile, even if his best friend Matt isn’t ready to come out yet. Atta has knocked it out of the park again, a beautiful novel with nods to his previous work.
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Review: Unwell Women – Elinor Cleghorn
A history of medical history through the lens of women, or, how women have been severely mistreated medically throughout history. Utterly brilliant yet continuously miserable.
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Review: Necessary Fiction – Eloghosa Osunde
A beautiful group of stories and characters that shows us what it means to be queer in Nigeria today. One of the most beautiful and quotable books I’ve read this year.
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Review: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson
A novel of uncovered family secrets and the lengths people go to for survival. I enjoyed the premise of this one, there was a lot going on and lots of twines to unravel.
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Review: Give Him to Me – Dorothy Koomson
Robyn witnessed the murder of her mother by her father and watched the world protect him, now she wants to track him down and is going through everyone connected with the case. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of Kez and her cases, this is another brilliant one.
The Bookish Mindset 