Speculative historical fiction

On injustice: March 2024 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Creative Non Fiction, Horror, Nature Writing, Queer Literature, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction

Toto Among the Murderers by Sally J Morgan

I picked this book because it was intrigued by its premise: it’s partly based on the encounter its author had with the infamous murderers Fred and Rose West in the 1970s. Sally J Morgan was a young girl hitchhiking who decided not to get in their car – but was impacted by the encounter – as she later learned what she had really escaped from.

This novel is about women, the relationships they share, and the sexism and cruelty they faced in 1970s England (which actually, still feels pretty relatable these days).

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Best Reads of 2023

Book Review, Books, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction

This year I read more books than usual – making this my best reading year post-PhD. I’ve also realised more than ever that reading – especially in this age when we have so many things competing for our focus, such as email and social media – is like a sport. A muscle that you need to exercise regularly. After those times in the year when life became too much and I couldn’t read regularly – for example, July, when I was travelling a lot, doing job interviews and trying to plan another house move across England – reading became more difficult and during August I had to ease myself back into it. The good news is that after three or four days of reading regularly focus always comes back, and I find that the more I read the longer I can stay with a book in my hands without falling asleep. It’s actually kind of amazing to think that when I was a child I had much more natural endurance when it came to reading and I could spend hours and hours stuck to a book…

Also, libraries are wonderful, I still get a high every time I get to visit them and pick all the books I want to read and it’s for free! Nobody wants my money! It’s simple, accessible pure pleasure! Kindness! Let’s all please love libraries and care for them and never take them from granted.

So here we go with my best reads this last year.

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Experiencing the thin places: November 2023 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Nature Writing, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction

Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

This was a reread – I came by this story back in 2014, when I was researching unreliable narrators – before that I watched the film adaptation when it came out in cinemas in 2007.

On this second read, I enjoyed the story even more. First of all, Barbara Covett, the narrator, is so interesting. She’s a twisted and opinionated sixty-something year old History teacher in a secondary school who becomes obsessed with her younger new colleague, Sheba Hart.

At first glance it may seem that the focus of this novel is the illicit relationship between Sheba, the new teacher, and one of her pupils, fifteen-year old Steven Connolly. But this is really the story of two women who will end up tied to each other, against all odds.

Hints at Barbara’s lesbianism were even more noticeable to me on this second read. She doesn’t make direct reference to it once but she reveals to be someone who’s maintained a series of obsessive friendship with women exclusively, many of them younger than she is, as it’s the case with Sheba. I believe, though, that Barbara’s intense friendships go beyond sexuality. She likes Sheba and she hates her too because she has all the things that Barbara wants: youth, beauty, social status (which, coincidentally, are many of the things women are socialised to crave from a very young age, specially the first two).

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Finding comfort in darkness: May 2023 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

I came across this book by chance thanks to a horror reading book club I joined last year (thanks Jess!) and it was such a wonderful discovery. This is a twisted, experimental, beautifully written novel I couldn’t put down and finished in a couple of days. An interesting take of the idea of the hunted house that links a decadent (formerly majestic) mansion near Brighton with a rotten version of dangerous nationalism – the kind of nationalism that feeds on dark made-up fantasies that justify things like xenophobia, racism, violence and colonialism.

The story is told (mainly) through the points of view of its two main characters – Alice, a trans woman, and Ila, a second generation immigrant queer woman who used to be in a relationship with Alice which ended in an extremely traumatic way.

This book makes very interesting links between transphobia and xenophobic nationalism. If gender/nationality are social constructs and justified by powerful (yet, in many cases, fictional) narratives, what happens when these narratives use the hatred of the other to create a sense of self and of community?

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Enlightment: April 2023 Reading Log

Book Review, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction

Small things like these by Claire Keegan

This is a novella, so a quick read, yet it left a big impression on me and I’m still thinking about it. Set in Ireland in 1985 it follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in a small town where everyone knows each other. The day before Christmas he goes to the nearby convent to make a delivery and finds something in the coal bunker that shouldn’t be there. Hence, he’s faced with a dangerous moral decision – to speak up against the nuns, who are very powerful members of the community or keep living his life as quietly as he’s used to.

This dilemma is a powerful one – to tell the truth and stand up for others often requires a sacrifice that not many of us are willing to make. Being good and decent can also mean paying a high price. It’s easy to empathise with Bill from the very beginning because he’s a hard-working man with the best intentions. He has an interesting upbringing many would have frowned upon back in that time – his mother had him when she was sixteen years old and while working as a maid for Mrs Wilson the richest woman in town; he doesn’t know who his father is. Against all odds, Mrs Wilson lets mother and baby stay in her household and acts as a sort of kind relative towards them both. As an adult, Bill has a job, a wife, and five daughters. All of these are important details that will foreshadow the protagonist’s final decision.

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