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mwgerard's reviews
1643 reviews
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Read my full review at: https://www.mwgerard.com/review-how-to-solve-your-own-murder/
Teenage Frances Adams goes to the village fête with her friends, where they all have their fortunes told by the medium in a booth. It’s all in good fun, until the fortune-teller gives Frances a sinister, mysterious prediction. From that day forward she is convinced she will be murdered and determines to discover her killer — hopefully before they can complete the job.
Teenage Frances Adams goes to the village fête with her friends, where they all have their fortunes told by the medium in a booth. It’s all in good fun, until the fortune-teller gives Frances a sinister, mysterious prediction. From that day forward she is convinced she will be murdered and determines to discover her killer — hopefully before they can complete the job.
Now 60-odd years later she owns a country estate and a home in Chelsea, London. It’s the latter where her great niece Annie has lived hearing stories about her eccentric aunt. A solicitor’s letter arrives summoning her to Castle Knoll to finally meet this aunt and discuss updates to Aunt Frances’ will. Annie dutifully heads to the country village but upon arrival finds that Aunt Frances has suddenly died — and it might be murder.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
I enjoyed this even more than Stevenson's first book!
Polar Horrors: Chilling Tales from the Ends of the Earth by John Miller
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This is a collection of short stories.
I am obsessed with doomed (Ant)arctic explorations. I was thrilled when the British Library added this to their Tales of the Weird series. This book explores both polar regions through nautical oddities, explorer’s madness, and supernatural creatures. In a way, all of these things can exist in a world so remote. It’s not as if any of us can go investigate for ourselves. We have to take the word of those that have been, and survived. https://www.mwgerard.com/books-long-weekend/
I am obsessed with doomed (Ant)arctic explorations. I was thrilled when the British Library added this to their Tales of the Weird series. This book explores both polar regions through nautical oddities, explorer’s madness, and supernatural creatures. In a way, all of these things can exist in a world so remote. It’s not as if any of us can go investigate for ourselves. We have to take the word of those that have been, and survived. https://www.mwgerard.com/books-long-weekend/
Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
informative
fast-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Racism
The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
An eccentric but ostensibly brilliant author has a new book ready for translation. She summons her equally odd but insightful translators to her home on the edge of the Bialowieza forest reserve in Poland. They all get together, go through the manuscript and spend all day translating from Polish into their respective languages. But this time, their author Irena Rey is behaving strangely — even for her.
She is obsessed with the logging happening in Bialowieza forest — and the endangered fungi that grow there. She leads the group on bizarre nature hikes. Most importantly, she isn’t sharing her pages with the translators and the group begins to suspect something else is afoot.
But this book is anything but a missing persons case. It is a thoughtful exploration of language and translation. Where does the author end and translator begin? How does language create thoughts? What is a translator with no work to translate? And what is a writer if there is no one to read their work? The question becomes even deeper when one remembers that the Jennifer Croft, author of the book in your hand, is herself a translator of Polish into English for Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. In the Extinction of Irena Rey, all these philosophical quandaries are set against the backdrop of an ancient, primeval symbiotic ecosystem on the brink of destruction. But, of course, any one of these ideas can be imposed on the wider world.
Still, Croft keeps the story moving with a narrator of increasing desperation, footnotes from another character, bizarre clues and a unpredictable Irena Rey. Reality — and the meaning of words — is blurred. And just for fun, although the action takes place in 2017, an introductory note from the translator is signed as 2027.
The book is smart and imaginative, but not light reading. To truly enjoy this novel, a reader will need to devote a certain amount of concentration and thought. That said, it is by no means incoherent or opaque. Readers looking for something in the realm of Bellwether Revivals, The Luminaries, or The Ecliptic will like this one.
My thanks to Bloomsbury for the advance reading copy.
She is obsessed with the logging happening in Bialowieza forest — and the endangered fungi that grow there. She leads the group on bizarre nature hikes. Most importantly, she isn’t sharing her pages with the translators and the group begins to suspect something else is afoot.
But this book is anything but a missing persons case. It is a thoughtful exploration of language and translation. Where does the author end and translator begin? How does language create thoughts? What is a translator with no work to translate? And what is a writer if there is no one to read their work? The question becomes even deeper when one remembers that the Jennifer Croft, author of the book in your hand, is herself a translator of Polish into English for Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. In the Extinction of Irena Rey, all these philosophical quandaries are set against the backdrop of an ancient, primeval symbiotic ecosystem on the brink of destruction. But, of course, any one of these ideas can be imposed on the wider world.
Still, Croft keeps the story moving with a narrator of increasing desperation, footnotes from another character, bizarre clues and a unpredictable Irena Rey. Reality — and the meaning of words — is blurred. And just for fun, although the action takes place in 2017, an introductory note from the translator is signed as 2027.
The book is smart and imaginative, but not light reading. To truly enjoy this novel, a reader will need to devote a certain amount of concentration and thought. That said, it is by no means incoherent or opaque. Readers looking for something in the realm of Bellwether Revivals, The Luminaries, or The Ecliptic will like this one.
My thanks to Bloomsbury for the advance reading copy.
Northern Lights: A History of the Arctic Scots by Edward J. Cowan
adventurous
dark
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
https://www.mwgerard.com/books-for-february/
The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary by Sarah Ogilvie
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
https://www.mwgerard.com/books-for-february/
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry
informative
reflective
medium-paced
https://www.mwgerard.com/books-for-february/
Where You End by Abbott Kahler
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
https://www.mwgerard.com/books-for-february/
Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Read my full review https://www.mwgerard.com/review-maude-hortons-glorious-revenge/
Constance and Maude are sisters in early Victorian London, brought even closer when their parents die and they have to move in with their grandfather. He’s a successful apothecary owner and the two grow up helping him behind the counter. Though Maude has come to find contentment in the stability of their lives, Constance yearns for adventure. Not just a whirlwind romance or to find a respectable position. She wants to see the world, so she signs up as a cabin boy (in disguise) on the Makepeace, a ship sent to rescue the missing Franklin Expedition.
Constance and Maude are sisters in early Victorian London, brought even closer when their parents die and they have to move in with their grandfather. He’s a successful apothecary owner and the two grow up helping him behind the counter. Though Maude has come to find contentment in the stability of their lives, Constance yearns for adventure. Not just a whirlwind romance or to find a respectable position. She wants to see the world, so she signs up as a cabin boy (in disguise) on the Makepeace, a ship sent to rescue the missing Franklin Expedition.
Years later, when it is confirmed that Constance did not survive, Maude is secretly given her sister’s journal by a sympathetic representative within the Admiralty. Between this man’s stories about one Edison Stowe and entries in Constance’s secret diary, Maude knows something untoward happened on their voyage. She determines to discover the truth and expose Stowe.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death