Author: philshanklin

Book reviewer with background in education and libraries. Currently writing for book magazines and websites.

Whale Fall – Elizabeth O’Connor (Picador 2024)

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A whale washed up on the beach provided the focus for two impressive debut novels I’ve read from the last couple of years, “The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn and “The Whale Tattoo” by Jon Ransom (both 2022).  I feel such an event works well in fiction as it evokes such a sense of the out of the ordinary for the community, a sobering experience of just what the sea contains.  There’s the sadness and futility of the huge creature left to rot, excitement for children who witness this process and it often serves as an omen that things are about to change.

Another debut and another whale appearing on the beach of a sparsely populated island off the Welsh coast in 1938.  In its wake come two English researchers, a man and a woman working on a book about life on the island.  They employ 18 year old resident Manon as a translator, as a number there, including Manon’s younger sister, speak only Welsh.  There’s a sense from the mainland that things are building towards war but it is everyday survival which the islanders focus on.

This is a quiet, short novel of 178 pages which is well written and maintains the interest.  There’s a timelessness to it and the fictional location is inspired by a number of islands off the British/Irish coasts where populations and local traditions dwindled.  It impresses with its strongly created main character and the pull of the island for her.  Not that much happens but it is rich in atmosphere.  The Observer highlighted it as one of the most anticipated debuts for 2024 which has already been a strong year for first fiction.  I wonder if something so quietly assured and calm, and not to be taken as a criticism, slight, will stand out amongst much showier debuts.

Whale Fall will be published by Picador on 25th April.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

This Is Why You Dream- Rahul Jandial (Cornerstone 2024)

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From the author of “Life On A Knife’s Edge – Life Lessons From A Brain Surgeon” comes this very readable, yet very thorough (judging by the extensive bibliography at the back) study on dreams.  The author states that before starting this work he thought dreams represented very much a niche area of medicine with their interpretation, especially, having the distinct aroma of pop psychology, akin to horoscopes, but recent discoveries he has made on the operating table and the research carried out for this book has convinced him otherwise.  A specialist in paediatric brain surgery he certainly knows what he’s talking about and even though the complexities of brain functions will inevitably stump the general reader he makes everything as clear as he possibly can in explaining dreams and their purpose, significance, importance and meanings. 

There are sections on nightmares, erotic dreams, inspirations for creativity and impact on health and well-being.  There’s quite a chunk on lucid dreaming (where the sleeper is aware they are dreaming and can potentially exercise some control over their dreams) and what all this might mean for us in the future as some bewildering technology is under development.

If you, like me, are interested in dreams then you are going to want to read this book.  To get you going here are some little snippets I found myself highlighting.

  • We spend about two hours a night dreaming and not just during REM sleep as was once thought.
  • When dreaming the brain’s Executive Network shuts down (which controls logic, reason and reality testing) and another part, termed here the Imagination Network becomes dominant leading to those scenarios the waking brain would never fathom.
  • What we dream about is far more universal than you would expect.  Surveys carried out fifty years about in four different countries show people’s dreams to be remarkably similar (predominantly school/exam dreams and being chased).
  • Dreams do actually follow rules: When objects transform into other objects it is generally something similar.  It’s hard to read in a dream (that is why I can never finish calling the school register in my recurring teacher dream).  Use of TVs, computers and social media turn up rarely.  Hands generally look strange as do watch and clock faces.
  • Up to the age of 7 or 8 children are rarely active participants in their own dreams, it’s mainly animals from stories and cartoons.  When nightmares kick in (and they need to for developmental reasons) children will experience them 5 times more than adults.
  • Exam Dreams?  In tests students did 20% better than those who didn’t dream about them, even though the dreamer may have had the humiliating experience of turning up late, or naked, or forgetting to revise.

Towards the end the author concludes that the understanding of dreams can only enrich our lives and help us to cope with events and emotions.  And, as a bonus, you never know you might discover something along the lines of the Periodic Table, DNA, or the sewing machine all of which benefitted from dreamers.

I think I’m going for a lie down now……

This Is Why You Dream is published by Cornerstone Press, part of the Penguin Random House Group in the UK on 18th April 2024.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Earth- John Boyne (Doubleday 2024)

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This is the second part of Irish author John Boyne’s “The Elements” Quartet.  The first part “Water” made it into my Top 10 Books of 2023 and had me tearing up the rule book as it certainly shifted my feelings about short novels/novellas as it was a near-perfect example of the form, contained very nicely within its 176 pages.  It’s done well commercially for the author in hardback which is a testament to his commercial power as faced with a table of new hardback books in a shop I’d be tempted to go with something thicker to get more for my money, but wherever I see it displayed it shines out at me and is obviously being chosen by many readers.

But could he do it again?  There’s a bit of a niggling inside me to consider it a 5* book before even starting it as I’ve awarded this author the top rating 6 times from the 9 books of his I’ve read.  He’s already at the top of my 5* rating league but even as I’m writing this I’m not 100% positive of which way I’m going to go.

We’ve met main character Evan Keogh before.  In “Water” he is the teenage boy on the unspecified island off the West Coast of Ireland who is very talented at football but would prefer to be an artist.  Here we find him in London, a Champions League footballer embroiled in a scandal and facing criminal proceedings.  His entry into professional football is unusual and he doesn’t fit into that world.  We switch, in this first-person narrative, between his present and past.  A major theme of the novel is consent, a topic which has already seen me giving 5* to Ela Lee’s “Jaded” (2024) this year and a book I can never get out of my mind is Kia Abdullah’s legal thriller “Truth Be Told” (2020) yet here John Boyne certainly offers fresh perspectives.

I couldn’t put this down, which you might thing is not saying a great deal as it is only 176 pages (the same length as “Water”) but, on reflection, I don’t think it is as perfectly formed as its predecessor, which felt so complete.  Here, I found myself yearning for another 200 or so pages so that scenes which felt a little skimmed over could really breathe and that would have made this something really extraordinary.  I have to balance that feeling with the fact that the author has certainly left me wanting more- which shifts him back up into my five star criteria.

My only niggle concerns something I mentioned in my review of “Water” where I felt that the crafting of it “belies one of my issues with novellas in that despite their brevity they can feel drawn out”.  Here, there’s a character who comes back into Evan’s life in a scene which didn’t blend in so well and felt like a hint of padding within its limited pages.  Maybe this character had a significance I didn’t pick up on or may reappear in one of the later works.

And what of the element itself?  Earth is perhaps harder to pin down than water which was everywhere in the island setting of its novel but here it is used very well as the pull of Ireland, the home soil, its physical presence on the football pitch, the smothering sensation Evan experiences at times, as in being buried alive and in its grubbiness which dominates the whole piece, as it is a slightly queasy read throughout.

It may not be as well crafted as “Water” but, boy, is it compelling and offers a high-quality reading experience.  Is it up there with the very best of John Boyne’s five star works?  No, but “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” is one of my favourite novels ever so it’s probably not going to be, but it does compare with the other novels I’ve awarded 5* to this year and the answer become suddenly clear to me.

Half-way through The Elements Quartet and I don’t know whether the intention is to publish the four in one volume at some point.  If it is, what a work this would potentially be! But, however tempting a prospect this would be I wouldn’t suggest holding out.  If I was John Boyne I’d be tempted to write a really long last instalment to stop that happening!  You do need to read these now.  The third volume “Fire” will be out towards the end of the year.

Earth is published by Doubleday on 18th April.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

The Night In Question- Susan Fletcher (Bantam 2024)

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Cosy crime is a genre I dip my toe into occasionally.  I’ve not read the biggest hitter in this area, Richard Osman, but I would hazard a guess that this very healthy market is being aimed at with this, UK author Susan Fletcher’s ninth novel.  This Whitbread First novel award-winning author who made a big impact with her debut “Eve Green” back in 2004 should, by right, have good commercial success with this, especially when it arrives in paperback.

The setting is Babbington Hall Residential Home and Assisted Living and main character 87 year old Florrie is negotiating life in her wheelchair access apartment as a recent arrival after having to have part of her leg amputated.  She looks back to a life full of adventures and forward to more in her new home.  Throughout her life she lived with a dark secret, which no-one now living knows about.  Can she finally get to grips with this in what is likely to be her last place of residence?

Florrie is a sparky character with a strength and determination not apparent from her outer appearance and finds herself in the centre of things when a tragedy occurs at Babbington Hall.  She, alongside retired teacher Stanhope Jones start sleuthing to investigate events.  There’s a good set of characters including a couple of gossipy sisters-in-law, a Polish Goth carer, Magda, and an unconventional vicar all with their part to play.  I’m always a little resistant to being pulled into the fictional worlds in this type of crime novel but it did happen and the combination of potential crime at the Home alongside Florrie’s reviewing of her life up to that point is well balanced and works effectively.  Information is discovered at just the right pace to allow the characters, especially Florrie, who is very much the star of the piece to shine through.  I’d imagine this is different in tone and style to the type of novels the author has published before but she should certainly win converts to her writing.

The Night In Question is published in hardback by Bantam, an imprint of Transworld/Penguin Books on 18th April.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

The Amendments – Niamh Mulvey (Picador 2024)

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This is a debut novel from an Irish writer who made award shortlists for her story collection “Hearts And Bones”.  This is the 9th debut novel I’ve read so far this year and the standard is high, but this is one of the best.

It is a tale of three women, main character Nell, her mother, Dolores and Martina, who is one of the mentors of a religious group Nell falls into in her teens.  Nell joins La Obra de los Hogarenos (the Work of the Homemakers), an offshoot of the Catholic Church, a movement against what was seen as increasing secularisation and in favour of home life and fostering an international brotherhood of like-minded souls.  Not quite a cult, but a group which does influence Nell with its views around the time that discussions in Ireland on increasing pro-choice rights were being discussed.

Dolores had been involved in a previous consideration of these issues with the Eighth Amendment of 1983 when she had been a member of a women’s group.  Time moves backwards and forwards for these women throughout the narrative as more of their lives are gradually revealed to us and each other.

The catalyst for this is counselling sessions for Nell, about to become a parent with her pregnant partner Adrienne and facing this future with fear and a reluctance which needs sorting.

I was really involved with the women and their lives as they move back and forth from Ireland.  Time away seems to enable them to find themselves and help clarify feelings, Dolores in London and Nell in Spain but are they able to continue with that growth when they return home?  The religious aspect I found fascinating and the theme of choice- for the characters in their own lives and from the restrictions of the legislation brings the novel together very nicely.  This is certainly a high-quality read and it’s great to discover yet another first-rate Irish author with huge potential.

The Amendments is published on 18th April by Picador.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Manny And The Baby – Varaidzo (Sphere 2024)

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Debut novel for the single-monikered Varaidzo whose writing has appeared in anthologies and who has a background as a Digital and Arts & Culture Editor.  This is a dual narrative novel set in Bath and London at the time of the 2012 Olympics and in the mid 1930s.

Itai arrives in Bath to a flat he inherited from his father.  He did not know that his Dad had a place in Bath and further secrets are revealed when he discovers a box of cassette tapes.  The voice on the tapes is Rita, who has her tale to tell, in a transcribed narrative about Black British experience in the 1930s.  What links this woman from the past to this twenty-something Rastafarian and how is Itai’s experience in a place which feels very alien to him as a Londoner mirrored by Rita’s seventy plus years before?

Itai’s position in this new location is initially precarious as he is viewed with hostility by drug dealers in case he, a young black man from London, takes over their patch. This led me to expect something edgier than the novel turned out to be.  It settles into a tale of family, friendship and searching to belong, it feels very commercial and there’s a good sense of history of those still under-represented.  I never knew Hailie Selassie was exiled in Bath following conflict with Italy in Ethiopia and it is his presence which draws some of the characters to the city in the 1930s strand.

Characterisation is memorable in both narratives.  I developed a strong soft spot for young Josh who lives in the same flats as Itai, a future Olympic hopeful whose lack of funding leads him to selling weed to his neighbour.  The 1930s strand is rich in music and dance with Rita as part of the Hot Chocolates dance troupe and Ezekiel, a trumpeter, who is the source of Itai’s deceased father’s research as an ethnomusicologist. There’s a really useful bibliography at the end of titles the author used for research.  I’ve already highlighted a few to follow up on which shows that her fiction has certainly captivated my attention.

The title lest you think it’s a reference to a male nanny caring for an infant reflects the nicknames of Rita (The Baby) and her half-sister Emmanuella.

This is another strong debut in a year of strong debuts.  I hope this one will get the attention it deserves.

Manny And The Baby is published on 11th April by Sphere Books in the UK.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Death In A Lonely Place- Stig Abell (Hemlock Press 2024)

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Stig Abell’s debut novel “Death Under A Little Sky” (2023) was a rare beast, a crime genre novel that I wanted to read again as soon as I finished it.  I gave it a five star rating and it ended up in my Top 10 Books of 2023, describing it as “the best contemporary crime novel I’ve read this year.” No pressure then on Mr Abell with his second novel in his Jake Jackson series.

It arrives via the recently launched Hemlock Press, an imprint of Harper Collins with the brief to “intrigue the mind and thrill the senses” and this author certainly does both here.

You could read this as a stand-alone but I’d really suggest you go with “Little Sky” first to get the lowdown on recently retired policeman Jackson and his desire to get away from a lot of the trappings of modern existence in a house inherited from his uncle.  Jake is plunged back into the real world when a connection is discovered between two of the cold cases he had previously worked on which may suggest the existence of an organisation that can fulfil criminal fantasies at little risk for the right price.

A couple of new characters extend the appeal of this series and suggest that Jackson may very well encounter other criminal scenarios away from his immediate environment in the future.

This does feel more like traditional crime fiction fayre.  The debut had a freshness with its original slant of Jake’s escape from reality which certainly caught my attention in the post-Covid world.  Some readers did feel this was given too great a focus in the first novel- I’ve seen some reviews where readers found the lack of crime for a significant part of the novel a distraction, but I really liked it.  I think the balance is redressed here.  There’s a greater emphasis on criminal activity.  The author is a huge crime fiction fan and he’s exploring the different pathways crime writers use to befuddle, thrill and entertain us.  Here, there’s even a country house crime thread where we’re introduced to characters before we even meet them which feels reminiscent of something we’d encounter from the golden age of crime fiction.  (In his Acknowledgements Stig Abell states he’d planned this as the main focus of his work but was rightly dissuaded by his publishers.  As it is it provides a clever diversion which feels very much part of the plot of the novel).

In this second book the author has given us quite a bit of what I loved from the first, a couple of new characters with potential to flourish in further instalments and an involving plot which builds to some tense action sequences.  I haven’t got the same sense of “Wow!” I got last time round but I can really appreciate a very strong crime series settling in and bedding down and hopefully it will not be too long before the author gives us more from these characters.

“Death In A Lonely Place” is published on April 11th 2024 by Hemlock Press.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

The Library Thief- Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere 2024)

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I’ve read a number of Gothic-tinged historical novel debuts over the last few years.  Titles that spring to mind are “The Beholders” by Hester Musson (2024), “The Animals Of Lockwood Manor”- Jane Healey (2020), “The Confessions Of Frannie Langton” – Sara Collins (2019), “Theatre Of Marvels” – Lianne Dilsworth (2022) and my favourite of all “The Wicked Cometh” by Laura Carlin (2018). These books appeal to me as a reader.  I like the darkness which gradually reveals itself from beneath a thin veneer of respectability.  They often have a nod towards the work of The Brontes, Daphne Du Maurier and/or Sarah Waters and some of these have been strong in depicting characters who would have had to operate on the fringes of society who find themselves plunged into disturbing situations.  This can mean characters offering a Black British and/or LGBTQ+ experience.

These factors are present in Kuchenga Shenjé’s debut.  It doesn’t feel quite as embedded in the history of the times as some of the above but we do have outsiders placed in an atmosphere which becomes increasingly twisted.  This is an effective and satisfying mystery novel.  Rose Hall, a large house in the Lake District sounds respectable enough and it is the place main character Florence Granger chooses to provide a temporary place of escape.  Her father is a bookbinder and she has absorbed enough of his skills to repair the book collection in Lord Belfield’s library.  Belfield’s wife Persephone died in mysterious circumstances and the grieving Lord has reduced his staff to just a cook and a manservant.   Florence joins them for a temporary live-in assignment to prepare the books for sale, but what are the secrets the houses, the staff and the Belfield family are hiding?

Good characterisation, good pace with things that we’ve encountered in those other Gothic debuts alongside fresh perspectives which makes this a very readable debut for which there should be an appreciative audience.  I actually really enjoyed the details of the bookbinding work before the delicate twists of the plot start to be revealed.

“The Library Thief” is published on 9th April 2024 by Sphere Books.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.  

Shrines Of Gaiety- Kate Atkinson (2022)

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This is the 6th Kate Atkinson I’ve read, two of which “Life After Life” (2013) and “Case Histories” (2004) have made my end of year Top 10s. She has always really impressed me.  There’s been three 5* ratings and two 4*s which makes me a little uneasy to say that this didn’t make the impact upon me that I was expecting it to.

There is no doubt that it is well-written.  The author is one of the best around and her hallmarks of quality, her rich language, her feel for time and location, her confidence and playfulness are all in evidence here but there is just something lacking in a work I thought I’d love.

It’s 1926 and we begin with nightclub legend Nellie Coker (based on the real life Kate Meyrick – the one-time Queen of London’s clubland) and her release from prison going back to take control of her empire managed by her offspring whilst she was incarcerated.  Inspector Frobisher suspects her of darker dealings than she’d been jailed for and enlists the help of ex-librarian Gwendolyn who has come to London from York to track down a couple of missing girls, seduced by the lure of the West End stage.  I really like the sound of this even as I’m writing it and putting these plot-lines into a heady mix of The Jazz Age, The Bright Young Things, alcohol and drugs it feels like my highest star rating would have been inevitable.

It just feels cluttered.  It’s pretty much an ensemble piece with no clearly defined main character- Gwendolyn, perhaps?  Not all of the characters worked, some I wanted more from, some didn’t matter to me and almost felt they got in the way preventing the magic I felt was always under the surface from happening.  It doesn’t flow consistently, and is a little stop-start which I found ultimately frustrating.  It starts to get really good on a number of occasions then switches to another plot-line or to less interesting characters.  I can follow multiple narrative threads but there were moments here I felt I wasn’t keeping up, which was a little unsettling and I think this was also to do with flow.  I really wanted to get the feel of the London nightlife of this era but it felt a little superficial.  I felt I wasn’t being pulled into the Coker’s nightclubs, I was still outside in the queue.  I wanted to be more of a participant in this world than a spectator and this author really has the skills to let this happen.

There’s quite a lot of back-story and this is something I also usually like but here it held things up. 

In its feel and depth there is a sense of a more modern slant on a Dickensian novel and there were echoes for me of the experience I felt reading Fiona Mozley’s London novel (also set in another era) “Hot Stew” (2021) which had the same feel of a more modern slant upon Dickens and which also did not quite hit home in the way her previous novel “Elmet” had.

I’m so perplexed about how I feel about this that I looked at Good Reads whilst writing this review which I seldom do.  It is a bit of a mixed bag 25%-5*, 43%-4*, 24%-3* which suggests its certainly not a disaster but that its not classic Kate Atkinson for everyone.  All the elements are there, they just don’t come together consistently enough for this reader.

Shrines Of Gaiety was first published in 2022.  I read the 2023 Penguin paperback edition.

The House Of Hidden Meanings – Rupaul (2024)

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I read Rupaul’s first memoir “Lettin’ It All Hang Out” back in 1995 when it was first published and enjoyed it so much I read it a couple of times.  Thinking about that book whilst reading this (I no longer own a copy) I’m not sure how much Rupaul the person was present, it was very much Rupaul the brand, full of life tips, things he loved, alongside snippets from his past.

But what a brand Rupaul is and it’s one that has exploded since that publication.  At that time he already felt a trailblazer for reaching unprecedented levels of fame for a tall, black, American drag queen with a music and movie career but from 2009 he began “Rupaul’s Drag Race” and few would have imagined that this would bring him huge success, a worldwide franchise, umpteen awards and “Mama Ru” is no longer just a trailblazer but at the centre of something that has transformed society on a global scale.

But this is all for the future as “House Of Hidden Meanings” doesn’t take us that far.  If the last book of his I read was Rupaul the brand this is very much Rupaul the person.

Born in 1960 in San Diego this is the tale of a boy whose childhood was marked by a mother unable to cope with the breakdown of her marriage and a father who would not turn up for his son when Rupaul was sat on the front steps waiting for him.  His mother always believed her child would become famous and he knew he was different.  From his time in therapy Rupaul describes this as terminal uniqueness – “this sense of being so different from everyone that it felt like a death sentence.” The world had to catch up to allow this boy to find fame by being different and using that difference to make his mark upon the world.

It could have gone so wrong.  There’s a lot of substance abuse in this book and precarious situations which could have easily turned and when fame comes most of these issues do not go away.

I read this quickly in a couple of days.  I think when I heard Rupaul was writing this I was expecting a fuller story.  He really could have come up with a work as thick as the recent Streisand tome and it would still not be all told.  He can be sketchy on dates and the fame when it comes feels a little glossed over, he seems to rapidly go from club turns to hosting the Brits with Elton John and perhaps that is what it felt like at the time or perhaps he’s allowing some overlap to be picked up again in a later volume.

You can hear the voice of Rupaul throughout, his affirmations, his ability to analyse and crystallise situations, his self-help nuggets and the metaphors which don’t always hit home.  I’m still a little vague around the title but this is one of the real strengths of this work as you get the sense of the real Rupaul Charles shining through though I think I would have liked just a little more to have made this into the important biography I was hoping it was going to be.

The House Of Hidden Meanings was published in hardback by 4th Estate in the UK in 2024.