Tag: books

The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon

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The Incendiaries is a complex, compulsive novel about faith, love, and extremism in a prestigious university. Will Kendall—awkward scholarship student who has transferred from Bible college—meets Phoebe Lin, a glamorous Korean American girl who is secretly racked with guilt about her mother’s death. Will falls in love with Phoebe, but Phoebe is being drawn into the orbit of John Leal, a former student with a complex past involving North Korea. Leal has started a Christian group and Phoebe is looking for something to belief in. Will starts to see that the group is a cult with fundamentalist concerns, but his attempts to save Phoebe expose his own flaws and issues with his own Christian past.

At its heart, The Incendiaries is a love story about extremism told by an unreliable narrator. Will and Phoebe’s relationship is depicted in a careful, engrossing way, showing the unhealthiness and the way that Will purposefully ignores this. The unreliable narration is key, showing how Will puts his faith in Phoebe and how he blinds himself to his own actions. Though the novel is quite short, the fundamentalist cult is a slow burner, giving it extra ominousness. Alongside this, R. O. Kwon focuses on sexual assault on university campuses, abortion protests, and North Korean prisoners, making the book a complex one that shows how these issues do not exist in a vacuum.

At the start, The Incendiaries feels very similar to The Secret History, with a lying narrator dealing with bigger things at a prestigious university. However, what it turns into is something else, a powerful novel that shows flawed people and dangerous issues set mostly within the bounds of the campus.

The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick

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The Monsters We Deserve is an act of literary criticism wrapped up as a short gothic horror novel, in which an author staying in the Alps and obsessed with his dislike of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein starts to question the line between creator and monster. It is written in a distinctive, immediate style, trying to capture a sense of the unnerving remote location and the lingering ghosts of author and character. Indeed, the atmosphere is one of its strengths, as the combination of spooky and experimental gives it a frenzied edge, making it difficult to tell what, in the context of the narrative, is real or imagined.

It is the literary criticism part that confuses it. The narrator’s hatred for Frankenstein feels at odds with the fact that the novel is likely to appeal to people with an interest in Shelley’s book, no matter how much of a plot device it is. There is also something about the way the narrator (who is framed as Sedgwick himself) directs a lot of his hatred onto Mary Shelley and her failings (to go too far into the weird dynamic here would be to give spoilers, though). Most people would be likely to agree with the importance of creation and responsibility in Frankenstein that the narrator must strive to prove is the ‘meaning’ of it, though this is at least partly framed as unaccepted.

For a book about creation and imagination, it seems very willing to give definitive views on both the novel and the historical writers it talks about. The manner in which in the novel literary criticism becomes a definite act and one centred around authorial intention must be interpreted through the lens of the metafictional elements of the book in order to see beyond the narrator’s opinionated stance. Indeed, it can feel like arguing with the narrator is the only way to engage with the idea of authors creating monsters they cannot control.

As an eerie short novel with a metafictional side, The Monsters We Deserve does pretty well. There is a lot left unsaid in between the lines, which matches up with the narrator’s reluctance to tell the full truth about his previous horror writing and with the mysterious and unexplained elements in the narrative. However, as a novel engaging with Frankenstein, it is disappointing.

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

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That’s Not What Happened is a powerful and relevant YA novel about the aftermath of a school shooting. Lee is one of the survivors of the Virgil County High School Massacre, but her best friend Sarah was killed. The story is famous: Sarah died with a cross necklace, proclaiming her faith. But Lee knows that this isn’t the truth, and she realises that she wants to set the record straight. As she talks to her fellow survivors, she sees that everyone saw different things on that day and maybe telling the truth isn’t as simple as it sounds.

It isn’t difficult to tell that this is a hard-hitting novel that looks at trauma and how people react to traumatic events differently, as well as how a small town might deal with a terrible event. That’s Not What Happened is also a story about characters: a diverse group of people and their lives, not only in relation to the shooting. There is also a fair amount of emphasis on their stories before the shooting, showing how the media image is often slanted or wrong. An important element of the novel is the fact that it never names the shooter, in contrast to real life media reports which often fixate on the personal details of the shooter. As Lee points out in her first person narrative, people often focus on the shooter, particularly those who become obsessed with the events. By resolutely making the focus on the survivors and the victims, Keplinger challenges this, focusing on how the stories of the people caught up in the tragedy aren’t always as simple as the media presents them.

This is a novel that represents a school shooting and the PTSD and other issues caused by surviving one in a powerful way, but also in a way that focuses on people and their lives and quirks. It is another young adult book that actively engages with the modern world, touching not only on the major topics around the shooting, but also on alcohol abuse, sexuality, disability, and family issues.

The Adults by Caroline Hulse

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The Adults is a quirky and humorous novel about the complications of life and the reality of trying to act like grown ups. Matt and Claire are split up, but they want their daughter Scarlett to have a good family Christmas. This means that somehow they end up at a holiday camp over the festive period with their new partners in tow, and Scarlett’s imaginary rabbit friend Posey coming along too. Everyone might think it’s a weird set up, but they’re all going to be adults about it, or so they think until it ends up with a phone call to the police.

The novel opens with the phone call and then tells the story of the characters getting there and having their holiday together intercut with witness statements, as the truth of the incident and what happened beforehand slowly comes out. The narrative isn’t hugely surprising, though it is nice that this isn’t just an ‘exes get back together’ type story. Instead, it is funny and slightly dark, with a lot of the comedy coming from the ridiculous awkwardness of the situation and the inclusion of Scarlett’s imaginary giant rabbit, as a group of people with a lot of differences and complicated personal ties try to get along amidst fights and lies. At times it can feel a bit slow, but it picks up the pace later on once the groundwork is laid down.

The Adults is a light read that can be sweet and also embarrassing, showing how bizarre life can be when some well-meaning adults make stupid choices to try and make a child happy over Christmas. It is the kind of book that would make a good indie comedy film adaptation, with a slightly surreal imaginary friend and a kind of ‘look how awful someone else’s Christmas could be’ vibe.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

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My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a clever and strangely hypnotic novel about a woman who goes into a narcotic-induced sleep-haze for a year. The narrator is privileged and empty; her Upper East Side apartment is paid for and she can use the rent from her parents’ old house to cover her bills. So, aided by a terrible psychiatrist who will prescribe her anything for her supposed insomnia, she goes to sleep. For a year, she endeavours to wake only when necessary, to live by routine, seeing only the guys at the bodega and occasionally the best friend she mostly dislikes.

Moshfegh’s style is fascinating, drawing the reader into the narrator’s strange world and mindset, seeing only what she sees upon waking. As might be expected from a novel mostly about someone trying to sleep away life, there isn’t a huge amount of narrative, but that is the point, and the immediate concerns of the narrator become the drama of the novel. Underneath are flashes of New York in 2000 and 2001: politics, 9/11, a depressing world of diets and art fads. At times it feels like other novels written around that time, using a character’s shocking use of various prescription drugs to enforce sleep to show the extremes of escaping society, but it also feels different, focused very much on the narrator and less on mocking the culture around her. And in this current world in 2018 of unceasing news updates and social media, the idea of sleeping to escape it all makes even more sense.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a darkly comic, downright weird novel that takes the trope of a main character withdrawing from the world and turns it into a purposeful retreat into narcotic oblivion. It mustn’t be written off as yet another New York novel, as it is really about withdrawing from the city, withdrawing from the outside world, and being self-obsessed in a self-destructive seeming way that may just be a rebirth.

Floored by Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson  & Eleanor Wood

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Floored is the story of six people who meet by chance in a lift at a TV centre, and a seventh person who changes their lives by being there. Dawson, Kaitlyn, Velvet, Sasha, Joe, and Hugo have their lives changed by a traumatic experience they all go through, one which causes them to meet every year. Through friendships, relationships, and a Whatsapp group, the six of them change and grow over the following six years, showing that coincidence can bring people together and life is about chance and consequence.

This collaborative novel between seven YA writers tells the perspective of each of the six main characters and a mysterious narrator who brings each section together at the end. Though written by so many voices, it feels very much like an integrated whole. The characters’ lives are varied and show different elements of life aged fifteen to twenty-one. There are issues of class, disability, money, sexuality, relationships, friendships, alcohol, and more, all brought together by the narratives of the six characters. It is particularly good at tackling class issues in the UK and how disability (in this case, visual impairment) is treated by well-meaning friends.

Floored is an unputdownable YA read, urging the reader to find out what happens to the characters as each year passes. It shows how friendships aren’t perfect, and sometimes people have to be self-centred, but that it is also good to have people who have got your back.

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

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The Way of All Flesh is a historical novel that blends crime and medicine, showing the cutthroat world of scientific discovery and the dangerous situations of the poor of Victorian Edinburgh. Will Raven starts an apprenticeship with the renowned Dr Simpson, who alongside his patients is looking for discoveries in anaesthesia. In Simpson’s house, Raven meets Sarah, a housemaid with an interest in medicine and an early dislike of Raven. Soon, they find themselves working together to uncover why young women keep turning up dead in the Old Town, deaths that seem to have some link to the medical world that Raven inhabits.

The novel is co-written by a crime writer and a consultant anaesthetist, giving it a thoroughly medical setting whilst weaving in mystery and money. The class elements are vital too: Edinburgh is divided and the characters cross between rich and poor areas. Raven finds himself confronted by the realities of the poor even as he deals with his own money troubles, with actions he thinks are helpful turning out to not be as well thought out. A lot of interesting elements are combined in the novel and the narrative has plenty of intrigue, though at times the pace is a little slow. Sarah is a great character, providing a reality check for Raven and also showing how intellect could only be valued if you were male and well off.

There have been a number of nineteenth-century historical novels set in Edinburgh featuring elements of crime and medicine released recently (including The Wages of Sin and The Pharmacist’s Wife), but they all tend to have unique elements of focus or narrative. In the case of The Way of All Flesh, this is the quest for anaesthesia combined with the reality of hidden abortion, and the interesting way this intersects with gender and class in a historical context. This novel is definitely one for historical crime fans who aren’t squeamish about medical stuff, and the fact it is the first in the series means there is likely to be plenty more to come.

Future Popes of Ireland by Darragh Martin

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Future Popes of Ireland is a character-driven novel about the messiness of life and the way it unfolds, with a side helping of social relevance. Granny Doyle wants her family to produce the first Irish pope, but things don’t go as planned, and she finds herself bringing up four grandchildren: five year old Peg and infant triplets Damian, Rosie, and John Paul. As they all grow up, things don’t go as Granny Doyle planned, and soon the siblings are scattered. Peg left home as a teenager and is far away in New York now, Damian’s musing political ideals and love whilst trying to tell his grandmother about his sexuality, Rosie is a dreaming activist who hopes of making her big sister confront the past, and John Paul has taken his pope role in a rather different direction than might have been hoped.

The narrative spans from 1979 to 2011, focusing on different siblings and their grandmother as their lives are weaved. Underpinning the story is the backdrop of Ireland and beyond: abortion and the 8th amendment, environmental issues, LGBT rights, war in the Middle East, and hope and despair in politics. This element gives the novel a relevant feel, rather than just being another novel focused on a family’s messy personal drama. The characters are frustrating in a good way, flawed and foolish and unlikely to have a magical happy ending.

This is a novel that from the summary sounds like a lot of other books out there, but it has a surprising spark in its relevance and its depiction of messy and not easily described human lives. Levels of ambiguity and unspoken facts give it narrative power, and it can be witty and heart-warming as well as cutting.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

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Washington Black is a gripping and fresh novel about a slave for whom escape is only the start of his unusual adventures. Eleven-year-old Washington Black knows only the Barbados plantation where he has lived as long as he remembers. When the old master dies and his cruel nephew takes over, Wash finds a strange opportunity: he is selected as the personal servant and assistant to the new master’s eccentric brother, Titch, who is working on a flying machine. However, Wash and Titch’s plan is soon scuppered and they are forced to leave the island. The novel follows Washington from the Arctic to Morocco as he finds an interest in marine biology and learns how to make his way in the world.

This is a surprising book, multi-faceted in its narrative. The shock to Wash of the places he ends up is mirrored in the way the book feels solidly set in Barbados until the point Wash and Titch leave. Slavery is vital to the narrative and so is freedom, in different forms, as Wash’s escape does not free him from thoughts of what he left behind, or the dangers of being an escaped slave and and a black boy. It is also a kind of coming of age novel, as Wash ages from eleven to eighteen across the novel and discovers a lot about the world and about his own interests. The writing style suits the novel, not trying too hard to be historical, and keeps the novel moving forward with pace.

Washington Black is a fresh kind of historical adventure novel that mixes science, exploration, freedom, discovery, and slavery. Wash is an inquisitive, complex protagonist coming to grips with the world, and his relationships with other characters show the inherent prejudices and ignorance of even well-meaning, abolitionist white people. Edugyan creates a twisting historical narrative that manages to capture wonder and darkness.

There There by Tommy Orange

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There There is a gripping novel about a collection of people brought together by the Big Oakland Powwow, telling a story of cycles of violence and family. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and back in Oakland after a long time, not sure if she’s ready to see her grandsons and her sister Opal. Edwin is looking for his father and proving he can get out of the house and do things. Dene is collecting Native stories about Oakland to honour his uncle. Blue is organising the event and looking for her mother. And all the while, a plan to rob the powwow lurks beneath the preparations.

This is an explosive novel with a lot of energy. The narrative weaves the perspectives of a number of interconnected characters, telling the stories of how they ended up at the powwow and how their lives have unfolded in and around Oakland. It has a very distinctive sense of place as well as character, focusing on urban Native American life and identity. Oakland is really another character in the novel, and it is the location of the powwow that brings the characters all together, regardless of their connections.

There There is a thoroughly modern novel that looks backwards and forwards, bringing together the stories of a range of characters and how they relate to culture, identity, and violence. It is an impressive piece of literary fiction ideal for anyone looking for novels centred around place, identity, and character, or books that tell diverse stories from people with a multifaceted sense of culture and identity.