Matt McAvoy Book Review

This is not so much a book of three short stories, as some of the reviews might suggest, but rather three parts of the same story of one man’s life, each taking one of the themes of its three major events: birth, marriage and death.  It does get you wondering while reading just how much is fictional and how much biographical or autobiographical.  You hope it is not too much of the latter, to be honest, because in all honesty, generally the unnamed protagonist does not come across a particul...

You always know what you’re going to get with Glyn Haynie: in a nutshell, some of the very best Vietnam War drama, fictionalized with no frills and no gloss, by a veteran and authority in the subject.  And this bite-sized portion – which is ideally read in one dedicated evening – is no different in terms of its quality and impact.  Still the fear, day-to-day uncertainty and routine mundaneness of the war zone – walking, thinking about home, sleeping, eating, fighting and hoping always...

I can totally relate to Kas’s comments in the foreword, that she already felt somewhat cocooned in her life long before coronavirus came along.  Then, lockdown gave her time for reflection, to see the world anew, re-evaluate her future and reprioritize what is important – I can relate to this, too.  What we then see, for the remainder of this book, are Kas’s musings, ponderings and philosophizing as she goes through this process.  Her words are put to poetry, not what I would call verse...

A very smart and funny book, I really enjoyed this one.  Don’t take the metaphor too seriously; in fact, I would say forget about the bizarre story altogether and just enjoy Dickerson’s clever writing and laugh out loud, dry wit.  This is more a book about the author than the characters (if there is any differentiation), and I suspect there is a lot of Marc’s self in all of the ensemble he has presented in Art Farm.  It is fantastical biographical, I am sure, but first and foremost it i...

I wouldn’t necessarily call Nom D. Plume’s mind an odd one, so much as a very high functioning, obscure one, and good luck trying to get on the author’s tangent – though if you do, you’ll be rewarded, for sure.  I like short stories and poetry, and I really like this collection, too.  The tales, I would say, are more like little vignettes or snippets of narrative, as bizarrely offbeat as they are exceptionally intelligent and well written, and as utterly random as they are astutely ...

Another beautifully written book by Ram Daryanani, who is very quickly becoming one of my favourite wordsmiths.  He writes poetically, eloquent and elegant, and so far all I have read from him has been a treat.  In all honesty, the half a star I awarded short of perfect is only really to acknowledge the fact that much of his take on A Christmas Carol is drawn directly from Dickens’s own words.  Obviously, I understand that this rewriting has been done as homage, as have many writers over th...

Amanda Berthault is a good writing professional, and it shows.  Combining a simple, no-frills storyline with a complex and profound narrative, this is high quality fiction, written as a craft, and a masterclass in character development.  Haunted former rock star Shadow is increasingly layered as his story unfolds, and remains a credible and likeable protagonist, despite the incredible chain of events which have brought his life to the point it is now at.  Perhaps I would have liked to see mor...

If I’m honest, the first half of this book was tremendous, and I had really high hopes for where it was going, already starting to prepare an outstanding review in my mind.  In the sometimes disturbing story of a young girl, the daughter of a teenage rape victim, who is abandoned as a child and left to fend for herself, Tina shows immense character and resilience in her determination to overcome all adversity and support herself without the involvement of child social services.   She lives ...

Bouncing Back From Difficult Times is a book which actually improves as it goes on, both in terms of its content and its quality.  This and others in the series are given titles which might suggest to readers a book about religious faith – but thankfully there is no mention of any such thing; the title, you come to learn by the end, invites the reader to relate to the author’s own struggle against her former negativity and damaged motivation, to become a professional in her field.  What i...

This is a strange book to review, mainly I think because I’m not really sure if it can be called a “book”, in a sense.  No offence to Vashti – she’s a real talent, and I’m all for mixing up styles and formats – but the majority the book’s content was songs from her YouTube catalogue, which was a somewhat disproportionate and disappointing ratio.  Vashti is a beautiful soft-folk/classical songwriter, with a soprano voice, but I don’t think I’d buy a book of song lyrics, giv...

If you like James Bond of the 1960s, with a touch of Michael Caine’s thinking spy, you’ll love this well-penned espionage book set at the height of the Cold War’s space race.  With more than a small element of those Adventure Books for Boys, which were so popular in the 60s and 70s, the unnamed secret agent goes from one extreme situation to another, from cliff-scaling to wreck-diving, with nothing more than his own grit and wit as an ally, when sent to investigate a huge explosion in M...

If you like flash fiction with an edge, I think you’ll really like this collection, like I did.  A fun and creative, if at times sardonic play on mainstream and utterly obscure headlines, compiled during the lockdown of the pandemic.  For the most part, as you might expect, there is a lot of left-wing, anti-Trump, anti-Brexit vitriol in some of these 150-word or so vignettes – thankfully, that’s not all the book is about, though.  All in all, the authors are good quality, and the cause ...

This book, perhaps more so than previous titles I have read from these married authors, is a real mixed bag: part dating guide, part travel and large part self-improvement.  It is incredibly comprehensive, and the immense amount of work which has gone into creating it is plainly evident.  Full of fascinating insight into the lives and cultures of the people of Ukraine, this one really opens your eyes to the dynamic between the sexes.  Likewise, the self-improvement, reflection and actualizati...

Even though only a short and somewhat simplified book, it is actually pretty much as important as they come, its premise no less than literally finding one’s very purpose, and turning their life to doing what they feel passionately about, preferably for a living.  It is a sentiment I strongly subscribe to, and have always tried to drive into the mentality of the younger members of my family and other people I care about, who may have struggled in respect of finding their purpose.

The book ...

An intelligent book about intelligence, and David Grantham certainly has the credentials to write it.  When you see this is a book about an agency posting in the war zones of Iraq, against the backdrop of the birth of ISIS, you do start to worry that it is going down a disturbing and brutal path – and, truthfully, this book is at times genuinely quite frightening.  Fortunately, though, the author veers away from the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalists he fights against, in favour of an a...

William Hart is an excellent writer, accomplished and professional; in a way, that makes this otherwise standard coming-of-age memoir a slight cut above.  In point of fact, I call it “coming of age”, but truthfully the characters are much younger than this – for this reason the content of this book didn’t really sit right with me at times, and readers are warned in this respect.  It is pretty vivid in its the sexual content, and I found this a little uncomfortable, because in the main...

I’m sorry to say that I found this book quite a tough read, and that is definitely not because of Megan’s writing ability – far from it; she is intelligent, talented and highly eloquent.  I think perhaps what I struggled with a little was her writing style.  Or, perhaps more accurate it might be to say styles, because, to tell the truth, it did feel at times as if I was reading two different books.  The deep fantasy – surprisingly, for me – was actually fine; Megan crafts a tremendo...

I have to be honest and admit that I find it something of a challenge reviewing faith books like this one, for the simple reason that I’m an atheist, and Peggy’s motivational memoir is for its largest part sermonizing the scriptures and the benefits of dedicating one’s life to God – she is in fact an ordained minister.  Of course I utterly respect her as an author, a person and a believer, though all I can do is present my review of the book objectively as a creative written compositi...

I like a glass or two of wine, but I’m certainly no fanatic and definitely not knowledgeable; I know the reds I like and the whites I don’t.  Yet, surprisingly, this tremendous coffee-table book from Michael Amon seems written for me – as well as for novices, those with significant knowledge, and even genuine authorities on the subject alike.  Simply put, Drinking and Knowing Things is a book which is ideal for everyone, save your average teetotal.  And it is wonderful; I really enjoyed...

I really like short stories – and I really liked the collection of anecdotes in Not Literary.  Combining autobiography with at times some riotous comedy – about such events as young women being coerced into stripping in a bar and liking it a bit too much, and her almost crippling herself to buy her colleagues donuts – Auriane’s are real crackers.  She takes mundane day-to-day events and squeezes out the laughs; I for one found myself in stitches at times, right from pretty early on.  ...

There are crime books, and then there are serious books about crime – major crime; global, world-changing crime, the kind that we know goes on behind the scenes and is responsible for the ills in the world.  This book is about that, and offers an insight that very few books have the confidence, work ethic and subject expertise required to assume.  From a destitute African boy, Kalenga becomes an international arch-criminal – a genius supervillain who would catch even James Bond’s eye.  ...

This is a good book, and one which I must say I enjoyed in the main.  If I am being honest, though, there is a large section of this entertaining epic which threw me off somewhat.  Until midway it is a pretty straightforward, rousing fantasy actioner, with more than a passing nod to Game of Thrones and the like, but then in the second half of FaeRhysian, the magical high-fantasy element becomes more prominent, the characters begin to embark on time-crossing “treads”, and the story starts ...

Bizarre, fun, cynical, emotional, educational, superficial, entertaining – there are many different adjectives which could be used to describe The Friends of Allan Renner, but its genre might not be quite so easy to pinpoint.  I guess you could categorize it primarily as literary fiction, although some of which occurs is too narrative in style to pigeonhole it as such – furthermore, often the description doesn’t even apply.  The friends of the piece are the very small handful of individ...

Although this is the first time I’ve read an ARC on global dating, there is something strangely familiar about it, particularly in terms of its structure and content.  When I managed to put my finger on what it was, I then just couldn’t shake the opinion; Find Love Overseas reminded me not just a small amount of the many, many marketing and business strategy books I have reviewed.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to trivialize the obviously tremendous amount of work John and Anz...

One of this author’s greatest strengths is the simplicity of her premises, and this is another of those – if at times a little bizarre.  But again, as always with Louise, scratch deep enough beneath the tenderly itching surface and you will reveal a multitude of complex layers.  It might be superficially about a psychotherapist kidnapped by her deranged patient, but the nature of her profession should tell you that there is much, much more to both of these key players and their backstorie...

This is true horror from Louise Worthington, and genuinely creepy it is at times, too, with a vividness to its setpieces which would make Richard Laymon proud.  With her usual moody, atmospheric and psychological writing style, and characters with more layers than a Viennetta, Louise gets under your skin with Rosie Shadow, and stays there, increasingly itching you as the book goes on.  Part supernatural, part gore-thriller and part emotional drama, this is a well-crafted fairytale for adults,...

Right from the off, when you start reading Willow Weeps, you are advised to find yourself somewhere cosy, dark and atmospheric, without interruptions, and immerse yourself in earnest into the author’s world.  If you do, you’ll be rewarded with a psychological treat – a work of quality and intense poignancy.  If you don’t, to be honest, you may find yourself on something of the back foot and playing catch-up.  This is a book best read entirely on the author’s wavelength.

In truth, t...