Literary Fiction
Blog Tour – The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge
Welcome to my stop on The Carnival of Ash blog tour! Huge thanks to TheWriteReads and Rebellion Publishing for giving me the opportunity to take part in this! I was provided a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review. Publisher: Solaris / Rebellion PublishingPublication Date: 17/03/2022Length: 528 pagesGenre: Literary Fiction | Historical…
A Strange and Brilliant Light by Eli Lee
I was really excited to get started on this novel, as the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) is something I’m very interested in, especially when it comes to the philosophical debates surrounding it. Lee tackles the ethics of the subject brilliantly, however as a whole the novel didn’t quite grab me.
Blog Tour – Grown Ups by Marie Aubert
I really love books that just provide a brief snapshot into the lives of ordinary people, so when I heard about this book of 40 year-old Ida struggling to come to terms that life as a ‘grown up’ isn’t what she imagined it immediately connected with me and I jumped at the chance to be…
Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguro
The entire novel centres around the lives of Stan and Charlie who I completely adored and felt fiercely protective of. Common Ground opens up with 13-year-old Stan who is cycling around after school. Straight away Ishiguro demonstrates her excellent ability of revealing aspects about the characters without explicitly telling the reader. Something that occurs throughout…
Blog Tour – Song by Michelle Jana Chan
From the very first chapter I adored Song. My heart was breaking for him and his family; I was desperate to read on to see if things would work out for him. We see Song grow up and go through many harrowing experiences; witnessing this and Song’s bravery and determination endears you to him even…
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
As soon as I heard that Kazuo Ishiguro was releasing a new book I immediately pre-ordered it. Never Let Me Go is one of my favourite books, so when I saw that Klara and the Sun would once again be exploring scientific themes as well as humanity I was even more excited to read it.…
Little Gods by Meng Jin
Jin wonderfully crafts a whole host of deep and complex characters, and does so through brief snapshots from the characters perspectives and through the opinions of other characters. Little Gods masterfully demonstrates the art of showing and not telling. I loved being able to piece aspects of the characters’ histories together and figuring out how…
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
The narrative of this novel alternates between perspectives of these five characters. We see a snapshot of all of their lives at particular times of their lives, rather than following each of them continuously throughout the 65 years that this novel spans. I really enjoyed this way of telling the story, because even though you…
Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan
Gratitude centres on the lives of three characters, with the narrative alternating between them. We have Marie, a young woman who has had a troubled childhood, Jérôme an optimistic speech therapist who dedicates himself to helping older people reclaim lost language and finally Michka, a woman who has spent her entire life working with words…
little scratch by Rebecca Watson
Despite this novel being written in the first person, we actually don’t know too much about the protagonist. Of course details are revealed to us as the novel progresses but even then they are still a mystery to the reader. However, this isn’t something I realised until after I finished the book because being inside…
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Whilst I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters, in fact I didn’t know whether to trust any of them, they all felt incredibly real and genuine which is what made them so captivating to me. This felt like a very honest and raw depiction of a typical American family and it’s because…
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Simply put, I adored every single character in this novel. Zachary was a fantastic protagonist and incredibly likeable. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that his passion was for video games and books. I can’t remember the last time I related so much to a protagonist! I especially loved his geeky references to games…
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
I saw that this novel was ‘book of the month’ in October on quite a lot of bookshop websites so I knew that I couldn’t go far wrong with this pick! Especially with such an intriguing description. The novel is short and I pretty much devoured it in one sitting, I put it down once…
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
When I first saw this novel I was immediately drawn to the beautiful cover, and then the mysterious premise of the novel compelled me to buy it. I don’t know what I was expecting from this novel, but it certainly wasn’t what I got and it has easily become one of my favourite reads of…
The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley
It’s no secret that I love Japan and read a lot of Japanese novels to learn more about the culture. I also love cats. Naturally, when I saw the title and the cover of this book it was as if it had been written personally for me. After reading it, I still think that as…
Little Bird Book Blog 