Bless Your Heart - Lindy Ryan

In pre-millenial Texas, three generations of Evans women run a smalltown funeral parlour.  Their business also covers protecting the town from Strigoi, the restless spirits of the dead.  A major incursion, plus their granddaughter in high school causes big problems.  

One look at the cover, you’d consider this to be both cute and arch.  It’s not quite that, but the early sections work well - deep fried Southern wisdom, combined with some actually well-written gore (one victim is literally gnawed to death by a toothless pensioner).  

Where the novel fails is in a clunking narrative and a mix of styles - high school novel, dark comic novel, police procedural and fantasy novel - and never really settles for either.  The 1999 timeframe seems odd, but with a key event taking police 25 years before and with the way the novel ends; I feel this might be the last we’ve not seen of The Evan’s’.  A sharper, more committed narrative might give the whole thing more bite, rather than gums.   It’s published by Rebellion on 18th July and I thank them for a preview copy.  #blessyourheart. 

 Milf by Paloma Faith:

Normally, I avoid ‘celebrity’ books - they bring me out in a rash.  However, I find Paloma Faith an interesting character.  And this book doesn’t disappoint.  Partially, is an attempt to reclaim the word and give it a positive spin. But that is only partially the purpose of it.  

She is brutally honest about her own sexuality, miscarriage, motherhood, IVF, the break up of the relationship with her children’s Dad and her own life. Mixed in with that, is her perceptions for what it is like being a woman artist, raising two kids as a single parent and contrasting her own life with her Mother’s.  

In broader terms, she talks about her own hopes for what the future of feminism looks like.  And if that is the intention of this book - one that changes the world - time will tell. But it’s that non-linear, snapshot style of the book that shouldn’t work, does.  Paloma Faith has added her another string to her bow in being such a skilled, candid and funny writer.

It is a pleasant surprise to find something that is both glitzy and gritty.  It’s published by Ebury on June 6th and I thank them for a preview copy.  #MILF

 The Divorce by Moa Herngren

In suburban Stockholm, Niklas and Bea have almost the perfect lifestyle, with two daughters and a circle of friends.  One night, Niklas goes out and texts he’s not coming back.  If that sounds like a murder mystery with fabulous knitwear, it isn’t.  The first half of the book is Bea’s side of the story as she copes with the break up, the middle is Niklas version of events and the third is the final part of the story as the two threads come together at Christmas.  

It’s in the construction of it that makes the novel sing.  Not just that three act structure, but the significance of what seem to be insignificant small things at the time - a childhood friend, a tattoo, an incorrectly booked ferry crossing, a kitchen renovation. 

Added to this, the sense of dislocation from the foreign location and the now, almost historical setting of 2015.   Tribute must also be paid to the translation by Alice Menzies, which lays on the pain and mordant humour expertly.

If it owes more than a worktop to The Doll’s House, no matter.  It’s a twisting, emotionally painful read.  It’s published by Bonnier on 4th July and I thank them for a preview copy.  #thedivorce

 Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe:

Margo is the result of a one-nighter between a professional gambler and a professional wrestler.  She gets pregnant by her college tutor and has trouble paying the bills.  She turns to camwork, negotiating running an Only Fans account, the legal process of proving she is fit to raise a child and repairing her damaged relationship with two equally damaged human beings.  

It’s an outrageous concept and Thorpe makes the most of it, using American subculture (wrestling, gambling, porn, social media, LARPing) as the basis of a critique of misogyny and capitalism itself. That’s not to say this is a deep, angry novel - it’s one that is broadly comic and often very funny.  Margo’s camwork is portrayed as ludicrous, surreal and the concept of what its purpose is, derided. 

It’s a novel that matures rapidly and gets rid of its somewhat arch framework, the construction of a novel (Margo is a creative writing student) in the first half of the book.  Ultimately though, it doesn’t quite hang together as a comic novel with a serious message.  However, it’s one that has already sold internationally and the TV series is already in production, with Elle Fanning as Margo and Nicole Kidman as her Mum… it’s one that you’re going to need to have an opinion on.  It’s published by Hodder And Stoughton on July 4th and I thank them for a preview copy.  #margosgotmoneytroubles 

 Extremophile by Ian Green:

A late 21st century London is at the blunt edge of climate change.  Members of the band Horse Theory scrape a living, gigging and blogging. They are contacted by an eco-terrorist group The Heavy Mob to carry out a series of jobs for revenge.  

It’s a powerful premise and the future world with Winter heatwaves, frequent pandemics, disconnected by technology is brilliantly realised. Where the novel falls down is in its lack of focus, it flits between POV’s and the villain is a little too extreme to be truly delicious.  

There’s also a lack of focus in the narrative. The novel seems to want to be about being in a band, an ecological novel, and a hard SF novel all at the same time. I would also point out the odd idea that has been used in other novels.

However, to cut the author some slack - this is his first SF novel. Next time round, he can be less expansive, more incisive and the results will be much better. It’s published by Head Of Zeus on November 12th and I thank them for a preview copy. #extremophile

 Until We Shatter by Kate Dillon:

In an imaginary kingdom, magic is real.  ‘Hues’ wield different colours of magic, against the rule of The Dominion, a theocratic state.  Cemmy has an ill mother, so she falls in with a gang of thieves to pull off a heist that could change society.  

Although there is enough to tempt the fantasy reader, the book is earthbound by an all-too familiar narrative.  Cemmy’s mother suffers from a ‘disease of the blood’, her gang are the lovable rogues you’d find in the average crime novel.  There’s also the trope from most police procedurals, that our hero is pulled back in for one last score.  

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it is what makes the narrative a little too familiar.  See also: not as expansive/ imaginative as a fantasy book could/should be.  Cemmy is an engaging character and it’s nice to see one in a fantasy book that is queer, not one that is seen as heteronormative or sexually available.  The ‘hues’ is a cracking idea, see also the idea that overuse of one’s powers will kill you, hence that arch title. 

But I found the lack of flair, the infodumping and the genuine absence of the fantastic to be a let down.  It’s published by Hodder And Stoughton on October 17th and I thank them for a preview copy.