Review: Conversations with Friends

I am very late to the Sally Rooney train. If I’m honest, I probably wouldn’t have jumped on it at all if my friend hadn’t specifically requested this review. And it does count as queer literature, so at least one of my boxes was going to be ticket. Sally Rooney, if you’ve been living under …

Mae Martin: Sap

‘It’s a really different crowd when you open for Mae Martin,’ Jack Barry comments with a chuckle. He has just mentioned that he’s started going to therapy, and we the audience have cheered in response. He’s a great opener, and seems to be a great person too. And yes, he is wearing that suit from …

Mini Review: Discworld 1-5

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is a big place, and, spanning over 40 novels, it can be daunting to try out. But fear no more, as I will be going through the entire Discworld and giving you a little taste of what there is available. Not sure where to start? I've got you. Not sure where to …

Review: Stardust

After my last read, The Unbroken by C L Clark, I wanted to read something warm, to restore my faith in humanity a little bit. And so we go from the latest releases to a novel which, by the author’s account, is ever so slightly older than me. Neil Gaiman’s Stardust is a fantasy adventure …

5 Queer Podcasts That Will Inspire You

I love a podcast. I first got into them a few years ago when a friend recommended me The Guilty Feminist, a comedy podcast celebrating women, which coined the infamous line 'I'm a feminist, but...'. My latest obsession is The Friendship Onion, where we listen as Dominic Monoghan and Billy Boyd recount Lord of the …

Review: The Unbroken

Tough, beautiful, and strong enough to carry an entire trilogy – but enough about Touraine’s arms. The Unbroken is the magnificent military fantasy debut from C L Clark, and the first instalment in the forthcoming Magic of the Lost series. This was my return to that old love of mine, the doorstopper book, after weeks …

Review: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

This week I read Zen Cho’s The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. Coming in at just 155 pages, this little novella is a fun pick-me-up set in a grim low fantasy world reminiscent of pre-Industrial Malaysia. It centres on a group of bandits who accidentally adopt a votary of the titular Order …

Review: Girl Meets Boy

Girl Meets Boy is my latest attempt at reading literary fiction. It follows Althea and Midge, two Scottish sisters living in the house their runaway grandparents left them, as they struggle to find out how to define themselves both professionally and personally. Ali Smith leads us with a steady hand through an impossibly (un)gendered land. …

Review: This Is How You Lose The Time War

This is How you Lose the Time War is, at its essence, a love letter. Literally – it’s based around correspondence shared between two opposing Time War agents, which becomes more than either intended. It is a shared endeavour by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Redstone, who wrote the perspectives of Blue and Red, respectively. This …

Ten Reasons to catch up on Feel Good before Season 2

Feel Good is a short, semi-autobiographical six-episode sitcom created by Mae Martin and Joe Hampson. You may remember Mae from such opening lines as ‘Did everyone have a good…childhood?’ which should give you an idea of what's happening here. I’ve watched this show three times now, and it only gets better after every re-watch. It …