I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the term “women’s fiction” and what is meant by it – is it fiction where the protagonist is a woman, where the author is a woman, which deals with “female themes”? Why does such a term exist?One publisher who tackles the term head-on and without mercy is Virago,…
Category: Fiction
Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
This time last year, hardly anyone knew who Robert Galbraith was. The Cuckoo’s Calling was just another crime novel, and its sequel, The Silkworm, should have passed off in the same way. But then it was leaked that Galbraith was in fact J.K. Rowling – yes, THAT J.K. Rowling – and the publication of The…
Review: The Pink Suit by Nicole Mary Kelby
We almost all of us know how the story of the pink suit ends – its wearer covered in blood, screaming next to the dying body of her husband, the president of the United States of America. In The Pink Suit, Nicole Mary Kelby presents a fictionalised (although based on some facts) version of the…
Review: The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman
It seems fitting to read the story of a female boxer at a time when it seems like women are once again trying to negotiate their path in society and fighting for equalities we thought had been sorted long ago. Of course, in Anna Freeman’s The Fair Fight, the fighting the women have to do…
Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
How important is art? If civilisation collapsed, would reviving or keeping art alive be as important as doing the same for, say, science? In Station Eleven, a post-apocalyptic novel set in North America after a flu has wiped out 99 per cent of the world’s population, Emily St. John Mandel looks at the question of…
Review: If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel
If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel is a novel that reads almost like a collection of short stories, set in the summer of 1972 in a working class community on Long Island. Narrated by Katie, the stories within This Beautiful focus…
Review: The Secret Place by Tana French
Imagine Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep mixed with a pinch of Sherlock, a dash of Midsomer Murders and a subtle hint of The Craft, and you have something approaching Tana French’s utterly compelling and slightly chilling The Secret Place. A year after teenager Chris Harper is found murdered close to a private girls’ school in Dublin, student…
Review: Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton
I adore a strong female protagonist, and Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton provided just such a character. But it’s not just a strong female that drives Witch Finder.Luke Lexton’s parents were killed by witches when he was a young boy. On his 18th birthday Luke is finally inducted into a guild of men sworn to kill…
Review: Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little
The internet, social media and 24-hour news, all fascinating tools that mean we can access information pretty much instantly, and which also mean it’s impossible for people to hide. Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are just two IT girls whose nosediving careers have kept gossip magazines and Twitter occupied, and they were partly the inspiration…
Sarah Shaffi 