Indra Das - The Devourers (2016)

My first ever solo review for Ginger Nuts Of Horror is up on the website today. I'm reviewing Indra Das' intense and striking werewolf novel, 'The Devourers'. Drawing heavily from Hindu mythology and flitting between modern day and seventeenth century India, 'The Devourers' is richly imagined and steeped in India's history. Its exploration of liminal states, transitions, and deaths and rebirths is striking and powerful, and it subverts expectations about gender and sexuality. However what really stays with the reader is Das' beautiful writing, lyrical and evocative, with an almost hallocenogenic intensity. Das is able to describe the most horrific scenes in excruciatingly graphic detail, all whilst couched in the most sumptuous prose. Read more through at the link.

Ada Palmer - Too Like The Lightning (2016)

July also saw my review of Ada Palmer's 'Too Like The Lightning' at Fantasy Faction. Palmer is a historian, and her eye for sociological detail and political intrigue runs through this fascinating and unique science fiction novel, which explores a new age of Enlightenment in the Twenty-Fifth Century. Her fascination with how people could build a better world, coupled with a realisation of how fragile a better world could be and how much could go wrong, makes this an ambigious utopia comparable to Samuel R. Delany's 'Triton' or Ursula Le Guin's 'The Left Hand Of Darkness'. However Palmer very much has her own distinctive voice. I find myself very much looking forward to the sequel. Read more through at the link.

Tor Novellas: Victor LaValle - The Ballad Of Black Tom (2016)

So, late with the updates again. Apologies all round. My review of Victor LaValle's excellent subversion of H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Ballad Of Black Tom', went up on Fantasy Faction in July. Set behind the scenes of' The Horror At Red Hook', Lovecraft's most offensively racist story, 'The Ballad Of Black Tom' brilliantly dissects Lovecraft's racism whilst paying tribute to the imagination displayed in his stories. It is a timely and powerful critique of Lovecraft, whilst being a work of imaginative Weird fiction in its own right .Read more through at the link.

Urban Fantasy at Ginger Nuts of Horror

I am thrilled to announce that I will now be writing for Ginger Nuts of Horror, a fantasic website covering all manner of Horror fiction. My first article, written in collaboration with my talented co-workers at the site, is a piece on Urban Fantasy, in which we all talked about our favourite Urban Fantasy works. No surprises that my section is the one on M. John Harrison's Viriconium. Read more at the link.

Kat Howard - Roses And Rot (2016)

Today my review of Kat Howard's 'Roses And Rot' is up at Fantasy Faction. This is a glorious tribute to fairy tales, drawing heavily from the Child Ballads but touching on everything from Disney to Shakespeare to tell the story of two sisters who attend a prestigious arts school that has secret links to the world of Faerie. Kat Howard gets the Fae right, which is crucial in these kind of stories, and I will happily compare this book to favourites like Diana Wynne Jones' 'Fire & Hemlock' and Ellen Kushner's 'Thomas The Rhymer'. Read more through at the link.

Sarah Pinborough - The Language Of Dying (2013)

This month I have also reviewed Sarah Pinborough's novella, 'The Language Of Dying'. This is a deeply personal work about an unnamed narrator who is looking after her dying father. Beautifully written and unflinchingly observed, it is a work that defies easy categorisation, but has much that is profound, troubling and refreshingly honest to say about our mortality, and the unexpected courses our lives take. Read more through at the link.

Seanan McGuire - Every Heart A Doorway (2016)

Once again I must apologise for the lack of regular updates. Will try to keep on top of those. Anyway, earlier in the month I reviewed Seanan McGuire's heartwrenching tribute to portal Fantasy and the children who return from magical worlds, 'Every Heart A Doorway', over at Fantasy Faction. I absolutely loved this book, it mashes up genres with glee and interrogates what it is about portal fantasies that makes them so universally appealing, whilst exploring issues of mental health, gender and identity. The end result is beautifully written and exquisitely moving. Read more through at the link.