Category: Book Review

Book Review: ‘A Thousand Ships’ by Natalie Haynes

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Greek mythology has never been my thing; every time I approached it, I ended up bored to death.

The books felt dry and longer than the Great Wall of China, like eating dust while hoping for a tasty morsel that never materialised. The same goes for any movie. If I had to choose between watching a film on this topic or not watching one at all, I know what I’d pick.

Enter Natalie Haynes. For my company book club’s Greek mythology evening, we chose one of Haynes’s books. ‘A Thousand Ships’ is a retelling of the Trojan War from the women’s perspective. I was apprehensive, to say the least. But the whole point of a book club is talking to others and reading books you wouldn’t have otherwise picked up. So, I dove in.

‘A Thousand Ships’ begins with a woman waking up to Troy falling, with everything on fire. It’s an explosive start that immediately hooked me. From there, Haynes hops forward and backwards in time, exploring the lives of women connected to the war. We see both Trojans and Greeks, each aching with loss and longing.

The book doesn’t follow one woman; it follows a whole cast. It feels less like a single novel and more like a collection of interlinked stories that form a complete whole. That’s why I enjoyed it a lot more than I otherwise would have. This format kept it fresh and fast-paced, ensuring it never dragged. The pages burn away. And each character is sympathetic, regardless of which side they stand on.

The best compliment I can give Haynes is that this is the first time I’ve ever taken an interest in Greek mythology. Her writing is crisp and fast-paced; it’s never a slog to get through. She always makes it easy to understand. And even with the array of characters, she makes it clear who we’re talking about and how the others relate to them. Some of those well-versed in mythology disliked aspects; for a newbie such as myself, it was great.

If, like me, this topic has never hooked you, don’t skip over Haynes’s book.

While I’m not going to devour more Greek books, I am interested in trying more of Haynes’s Greek retellings.

She does it well.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review: ‘Silver Nitrate’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ‘Silver Nitrate’ is my latest read of 2025.

Moreno-Garcia first popped onto my radar with the release of ‘Mexican Gothic’ (which I’ve still yet to read). So, when I found ‘Silver Nitrate’ on the shelf, I grabbed it – and not only because that red cover oozes coolness.

‘Silver Nitrate’ follows Montserrat, an awkward sound editor. She’s in love with her childhood best friend, the washed-up actor Tristan. Together, they discover his new neighbour is a horror director from years past. For unknown reasons, he never finished his final film. Now, the director wants Montserrat and Tristan to help him complete it. Things go awry from there.

I had a good time with ‘Silver Nitrate’. The setting of ’90s Mexico is very cool and original. The childhood friends who always loved movies and horror resonated with me. And the idea of Nazi sorcerers is always creepy. The book is easy to read and doesn’t overstay its welcome. That said, I do have a few complaints.

I thought the genre was going to be horror when I went in. But, despite one or two scares (a couple of which were quite fun), the book itself isn’t terrifying. In fact, it wanders over to fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. I’d say it’s a romance novel wrapped in horror wallpaper.

Additionally, very few of the characters popped for me. Tristan, despite his interesting backstory, is whiny and annoying. Montserrat has her moments, but sometimes acts out for no clear reason. Abel was fun, as was the other guy who likes tropical décor (I forget his name). Speaking of forgetting, the main villains were all forgettable. We’ve all encountered these nefarious, lurking-in-the-shadows cult types before. Plus, there never felt like there would be any real repercussions if our heroes failed, only a vague ‘end of the world.’

These caveats didn’t stop me from enjoying ‘Silver Nitrate’, but they did make it disappointing. Judging by the cover and the blurb, this should have been a home run for me, yet it wasn’t. In the end, ‘Silver Nitrate’ didn’t quite cast the spell I hoped for. But it was fun enough to keep me curious about Moreno-Garcia’s other worlds.

I’m especially eager to check out ‘Mexican Gothic’.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆

Book Review: ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk

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Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ is my latest read of 2025.

Like ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ and ‘Alias Grace’, this novel was a pick for my work’s book club. This month’s theme? Nobel Prize Winners. (Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018 – nine years after ‘Drive Your Plow…’ was first published.)

The story follows Janina, an older woman living on a wooded mountain near a rural Polish village. The novel starts with a bang. Oddball (a neighbour) awakens her in the middle of the night to say that Bigfoot (another neighbour) is dead. From the names alone, you can likely tell this is a dark, quirky little book. You’d be right. Bigfoot appears to have choked to death on an animal bone. From this point on, residents begin dropping off, one by one.

I enjoyed ‘Drive Your Plow…’ a lot. The beginning was excellent – strange, with a terrific hook. The middle sagged a bit under the weight of astrology talk. (We get it: Janina is eccentric!) But Tokarczuk brings it back under control for the final third. The dark Polish humour that simmers beneath the surface is perfect. And the English translation is top-notch – I often forgot I was reading a translated work.

I wouldn’t call this a ‘mystery’, though. It was clear where the plot was going. To me, the whodunit aspect is scaffolding for the real story (which I won’t spoil here).

Still, I’d recommend ‘Drive Your Plow…’ – if only because I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s a peculiar book. If you can push past the astrology, you’ll find the ending rewarding, if unsurprising.

As for me, I’m keen to read more of Tokarczuk’s work – especially ‘Flights’, the book that helped her win the Nobel.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆

Book Review: ‘Hunger’ by Rodman Philbrick

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Rodman Philbrick’s (writing as William R. Dantz) ‘Hunger’ is my latest read of 2025!

I am part of several horror reader circles, and the theme of aquatic terrors has come up. As a fan of movies like ‘Jaws’ and ‘Deep Blue Sea’, it piqued my curiosity. Someone recommended ‘Hunger’, saying it was like ‘Deep Blue Sea.’ It seemed like a no-brainer for a breezy summer read, so I was in. Yet, it took me a few minutes to find a copy. I didn’t know that ‘William R. Dantz’ was Rodman Philbrick’s pen name, or that newer editions bore his real name. But find it I did.

The setup is classic sci-fi horror. Six mutant sharks break out of their caged-in cove and escape to the deep blue sea. (See what I did there?) The lab that created these creatures goes into panic mode, scrambling to reclaim them. Meanwhile, a local couple running a dive boat have been caring for two dolphins that fled from the same lab. It doesn’t take long for the carnage to begin.

I had an absolute blast reading ‘Hunger’. I wanted a fun B-movie horror novel, and that’s what I got – a high-quality B-movie horror novel, at that. The chapters from the sharks’ perspectives are fantastic. Philbrick captures the thought processes of these intelligent, primal animals. There are also some creepy moments, like the photographer exploring a shipwreck. And the chapter ‘What a Father Does’ gave me goosebumps with its moving, emotional quality. That last one caught me off guard.

As I said in my review of Steve Alten’s ‘Meg’, do you judge a book against other books, or do you judge it for what it’s trying to do? This novel is not Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’, nor is it trying to be. It’s a book about a bunch of mutated sharks ripping things up in a gory, spooky mess. And in that regard, it excels.

Are you looking for a fun summer scare? Do you, like me, have a salachian obsession? (That’s ‘shark’ for those of you who didn’t grow up reading/watching anything with a dorsal fin on the cover.)

Well then, look no further than Philbrick’s ‘Hunger’.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆

Book Review: ‘What Moves the Dead’ by T. Kingfisher

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T. Kingfisher’s ‘What Moves the Dead’ is my latest 2025 read.

This book has been on my radar for a while, often cropping up in online horror circles. Given its short runtime, I decided to give it a go on the train to and from Vienna. It’d breeze by and cleanse my palate after the heavy Margaret Atwood I’d finished a day prior.

The story follows Alex Easton, a retired soldier who receives word that an old friend is dying. They travel to the secluded House of Usher, where nothing seems quite right. The still lake has a matte surface, mushrooms emit foul odours, and the Ushers are no longer who they used to be. ‘What Moves the Dead’ takes inspiration from – or is a retelling of – Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. But, having not read much of Poe’s work, I can’t comment on how it twists the original.

What I can say is that ‘What Moves the Dead’ is delightful (if I can call it that) – a fast-paced horror romp. As expected from its 150-odd pages, Kingfisher’s tale wastes no time and carries little fat. It’s concise and to the point, understanding well what the reader wants from it. I loved the grotesque visuals of the hares and the unsettling descriptions of Ms Usher.

Sure, I’d have liked a bit more characterisation of Easton and the supporting cast, but this is both a minus and a plus. What the novella lacks in depth, it makes up for in momentum and eerie thrills.

If you’re after a quick, grisly read without the commitment of a full novel, I recommend ‘What Moves the Dead’.

I’m looking forward to reading parts two and three of the trilogy soon.

Book Review: ‘Alias Grace’ by Margaret Atwood

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I started a new job this year, and with it came a company book club. How cool is that? This month’s pick is Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’.

The novel follows Grace Marks, a young Irish girl born into poverty. We journey with her across the ocean to Canada, where she finds work as a servant in wealthier homes. And that’s where the trouble begins. Two people end up dead. The law hangs a man and sentences Grace to life in prison. But what happened? Is she guilty? That’s the novel’s beating heart and the question that kept me reading.

I loved ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, but ‘Alias Grace’ didn’t hook me the same way – at least not at first. I struggled with the first third. For a 500+ page book, that’s a lot of slow going. It felt dry and meandering. But somewhere around page 200, things get interesting. Atwood finally gets her hooks in, and from then on, ‘Alias Grace’ keeps you guessing right up to the final pages. The palpable tension as we near the murder was excellent and breathless. The book also shows how women’s tales from the 1800s can mirror modern feminist struggles.

That said, the book is heavy with unnecessary detail. Atwood did her research and wants to show it, but we don’t need all the facts as readers. We need to trust that she knows her stuff. The book oscillates between building great tension and slowing itself down with excess.

In the end, I liked it. And that’s a testament to how strong the good bits are – they outweigh the negatives. With tighter editing and a slimmer page count (a la ‘Handmaid’s’), this could’ve been a four- or five-star read.

As it stands, ‘Alias Grace’ is a decent novel that urges reflection on modern inequalities.

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Book Review: ‘Burnt Offerings’ by Robert Marasco

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A chilling classic from the ’70s, Robert Marasco’s ‘Burnt Offerings’ is my latest read of 2025.

I picked up a secondhand copy from one of my favourite local bookstores. Having seen it featured in Grady Hendrix’s ‘Paperbacks from Hell’, I’d wanted to read it for a while.

The novel follows the Rolfe family, desperate to escape another summer in the Bronx. It seems like a dream when they discover a countryside mansion available to rent for a low price. The only catch? The elderly Mrs Allardyce comes with the house. She always stays in her room; the Rolfes only need to bring her three meals daily. But no one ever sees her. And as the summer wears on, the house changes the family in unsettling ways.

As an avid fan of ’70s and ’80s horror – Stephen King, James Herbert, and the like – I adored ‘Burnt Offerings’. It has everything I want from the genre: dark characters, a creeping sense of dread, and a wild storyline. Its 200–300 pages flew by like the classic King novels I devoured as a teenager.

Uncomfortable, creepy, and entertaining, ‘Burnt Offerings’ is a must-read if you like horror.

Book Review: ‘A Moonlit Path of Madness’ by Catherine McCarthy

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Catherine McCarthy’s ‘A Moonlit Path of Madness’ is my latest read of 2025.

It took me a while to finish, but that’s not the book’s fault; life’s been chaotic. My wife gave it to me as a Christmas gift, along with a year’s worth of other books. And boy, does she know my taste in literature.

The story – set at the turn of the 20th century – follows Grace, whose mentally ill mother has passed away. Her brother inherits the family home in the US, where Grace lives with her servant. But her parents have left her another house on the Welsh coast. Hoping to leave her mother’s madness behind, Grace sets off for Wales to begin a new life. But escaping ghosts, real or metaphorical, is never that easy.

The story is dark and brooding, taking time to build the atmosphere. Being half English and half Welsh, I loved the damp, moisture-in-the-sea-air setting. You could almost taste the salt from the waves. Grace’s journey is haunting and relevant to our modern era. ‘A Moonlit Path…’ examines how we viewed mental health in the not-too-distant past. In doing so, the novel encourages reflection on how we face these issues today. McCarthy also creates a sense of fate’s inescapability, reminding me of Stephen King. It’s the type of story where you sense how it will end but hope things might turn out fine.

Haunting, beautiful, tragic.

If you enjoy slow-burn gothic fiction, this one’s for you.

Book Review: ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ by Shelby Van Pelt

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Shelby Van Pelt’s ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ marks book two of the year.

I’ve started a new job at a company that has a book club, and I was very much looking forward to joining. We’re discussing this book for our first meeting of the year, and I can’t wait to chat with everyone about it.

‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ follows the paths of Tova and Cameron. Tova is recently widowed and lost her son many years ago. At night, she cleans an aquarium, where a Pacific giant octopus is the main attraction. Cameron grew up with his aunt and has never succeeded in life. He has never gotten his life on track since his addict mum abandoned him as a child. A series of events knock them out of their ruts, and the story unfolds like a flower blooming in the spring.

I loved this book. Slow and warm, it is a bit different from my usual fare, but it enraptured me. I challenge anyone not to have misty eyes at the novel’s end. As I started the book, I told my wife, ‘I’m pretty sure this is going to ruin me.’ The writing is witty and wise, and the characters – even exasperating at times – feel real. Even though the twist becomes clear early on, its execution still packs a punch.

It is a beautiful and original story; I recommend this to everyone.

Book Review: ‘Ghost Story’ by Peter Straub

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Peter Straub’s Ghost Story is my first read of 2025!

I started this book around Halloween last year, but finishing it took me a while. I picked it up after reading Stephen King’s high praise. And I’ve also enjoyed the books the two co-wrote (‘The Talisman’, ‘Black House’). I adore King’s slow-burn, small-town epics, so I went into this one expecting the same.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.

Like King, Straub sets up a town’s worth of characters and a curious supernatural mystery. The atmospheric, snowy setting lingers on every page. The prologue, in particular, hooked me: a man kidnaps a young girl for reasons we don’t yet understand. But after that strong start, the story began to lose its grip on me.

The narrative shifts to a group of older men telling ghost stories. Straub punctuates this with extended, meandering explorations of the town and its people. While this setup has potential, I struggled to stay engaged. The pacing felt slow, with stretches where little happened. Some plot points felt underdeveloped or convoluted. I also found the dialogue and character behaviour hard to connect with.

I wanted to love this book. I gave it my all, but I struggled to stay invested. Even the conclusion, which Straub built up over hundreds of pages, felt anticlimactic.

That said, I see why others might enjoy it. Straub’s writing creates a strong sense of place, and the atmosphere is perfect for a cold night. Yet, it lacked the urgency and tension that makes a slow-burn story rewarding.

I wish it had lived up to its initial promise.

⭐⭐☆☆☆