Category: Contemporary Fiction

The Bee Sting was the first book I read this year from the list of books you lot chose for me to read. Therefore, it's the first book I was properly excited to get into - despite its length. It focuses on the highs and lows, past and present of the Barnes family who live in rural Ireland. With a plot style I usually like and some interesting storytelling techniques, surely this is a book I would like, right? As I said, The Bee Sting focuses on the lives of the Barnes family who all have their own issues going in their lives, both past and present. The Bee Sting plot - 4.25/5 The four main characters in The Bee Sting are Imelda, the matriarch who clings to material appearances;…

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle is a book that I picked it up as part of my follower book picks and I'm so glad I did - because it's a book I've ended up absolutely loving! This article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. The book obviously focuses on the character of Albert Entwistle who is a quiet, single older man who works at the post office. One day he's given a letter by HR informing him that he has been asked to take compulsory retirement (not a real thing) and thus he begins to…

I picked up Yellowface because I’d heard quite a few people sing its praises and because all of the bookish stars aligned (I needed to pick up a book and it was on my “realistic TBR” and the audiobook became available). It’s an interesting book that discusses the topic of the affects of social media on authors but I’m not sure it quite does enough. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. Yellowface tells she story of how one day unsuccessful author June Haywood's friend and incredibly successful author Athena Liu dies…

A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara is a book that I'd been hearing incredibly sad things about for months. After reposting my monthly follower choice reads over on my Instagram, every single time, someone would make a comment "A Little Life is going to ruin you". So when I finally got around to reading it, I had both high hopes but also tempered expectations due to hype. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. A Little Life chronicles the lives of four friends—Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm—navigating adulthood in New York City.…

Every now and then a book tries to get a message across - whether it's highlighting underrepresented minorities or climate change. And sometimes this is done well and subtly and then other times it's not done so well and feels pushed in your face. Unfortunately, High Rise is a book that does this. It wants to talk about climate change, but also talk about human stories and none are done particularly well. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. High Rise was kindly sent to me by the publisher in return for…

I think I'm quite some years behind on the Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine hype but it still felt like a read that was incredibly relevant and, if I had to guess, started off a trend of first-person quirky women narrators. Since then we've had quite a few first-person contemporary narratives that feature a lot of dark humour. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the products. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine follows an important few months in the life of Eleanor Oliphant. Eleanor clearly has some mild autism and thus struggles with a…