Sarah (7800 KP) rated Modern Romance in Books
Dec 14, 2019
There's a great balance in this between facts, data and laughs, and there are some very clever insights in this into modern dating and romance. It was also interesting to read about dating in other foreign cities that I didn't know much about. Aziz is a relatively endearing author, coming across as rather friendly and inviting and you get the feeling that he really cares about the subject matter. There's a lot of truth in this book and whilst I don't think anything in this is massively groundbreaking, it's still an insightful and entertaining read.
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
8.6
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Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD AND THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE...
I & I: The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Wailer
Book
Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trench Town R&B crooners, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob...
Lost in Space
7.2
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The year is 2046. A Mother Ship containing a number of Jupiter Class Colony Ships are on their way...
Science fiction
The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs
Book
Great photographs change the way we see the world; The Ongoing Moment changes the way we look at...
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Oct 7, 2020
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
Book
Tom Wolfe's debut collection of essays - a brilliant, form-bending dive into the future of America...
The Order Of Time
2.0
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Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long...
Non fiction Science Physics Philosophy
The Future
10.0
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The Future – as the richest people on the planet have discovered – is where the money is. The...
Speculative fiction Social media climate change
Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Witchfinder's Sister in Books
Mar 15, 2018
<i>The Witchfinder’s Sister</i> is based on true life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins that grew to fame during the English Civil War around East Anglia, hunting and killing “witches”. This book isn’t non-fiction, it’s fiction based around non-fiction! I love these sorts of books that create their own stories from something that was very much real. Not only does it make for good reading, they also bring in some true history facts, so you’re being educated on the subject as you read.
High praise goes to Underdown for this novel. I feel like historical fiction can be hard genre to get right, and considering this is a <i>debut</i> novel, I’m amazed at how well put together and beautiful this has turned out to be! I love reading historical fiction, every once in awhile, and this is the sort of book that keeps my love for the genre burning.
The writing in this novel was haunting and beautiful. Nine times out of ten, it was exactly as you would have imagined the 17th Century to be, but I felt there were a few slips that made the book feel modern. For example, would a lady in 1645 say the phrase <i><b>“shitting herself”</b></i>? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that feels like a reasonably modern phrase to me.
I loved our main character, Alice. Me and my mum were talking about historical fiction novels and how we find it hard to understand why women make the decisions they make in these books, because we’re so used to having some equality and independence. But I noted that in this book, even though Alice is inferior to her brother and his counterparts, she is still a risk taker; going against her brother's wishes & sneaking around. I liked that she was strong and a little rebellious, it was so much easier to connect with her because of this.
On the other hand. I <i>hated</i> Matthew. He was a despicable character. I can rarely hate a character in a book, even if I’m supposed to. I tend to find the good in them at some point, or have some sort of sympathy for them, but I absolutely despised Matthew. Well done to Underdown for creating such a hate-inducing character. It’s quite a hard feat, but she managed it perfectly. The same goes for Mary Phillips.
The tension was built so well in this novel, you could feel the mystery growing and growing with every page and I loved it! Though the story moved reasonably slowly, the book was still absolutely riveting and I found it extremely hard to put down when I knew it was time to get some rest.
I am so, so excited to read more from Underdown. This was an amazingly well put together and researched.
<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>