-Reviewed by Sarah Gonnet- One of the main advantages of writing a novella instead of a full-length novel is the energy the shorter form allows for. William Thirsk-Gaskill takes full advantage of this. He creates voices for his characters that are spikey with humour and poetic sensitivities. The nuances and everyday characteristics of the characters…
-Reviewed by Sarah Gonnet- In The Girl on the Red Pillow, Angelica Rust plays the ‘What the f—k?’ card repeatedly. Sometimes this has an imaginative Alice in Wonderland effect; but it also causes the story’s tension to be occasionally broken by unintended hilarity. Yet despite this the book is very enjoyable. It also brings to…
-Reviewed by Eleanor Hemsley- Shit Happens is perhaps not best suited as a title for this book as the end lesson as such seems to be that everything turns out peachy in the end, but none the less it is definitely worth reading. Never before have I read a book that so perfectly captures the…
-Reviewed by Cath Barton- I was tempted to start this review by trying to write a recipe for a successful story, because it’s with a recipe that Nikesh Shukla begins each chapter of his short novella, The Time Machine; but I knew that mine would probably be hackneyed, whereas his are as fresh and fragrant…
-Reviewed by Andie Berryman- Unsettled is a novella from the Indimyth category of Indireads, a collective of South Asian authors writing fiction depicting modern day struggles between heritage and the burgeoning economic, Western-influenced values in contemporary South Asia. The novella interweaves the stories of Divya and Raghav, a married middle class professional couple in modern…
-By Richard T. Watson- A generation or more grew up in the Cold War shadow of the Bomb, fearing the effects of the nuclear technology that was the focus of an arms race between the world’s two superpowers. But it’s unlikely that any of them were affected in quite the same way as Yerzhan, the…
-Reviewed by Eleanor Hemsley- The Hospital is a story filled with gritty reality about the health system in the early 21st century. We follow a health care worker through a short period in his life where he wants to escape, and journey with him as he tries to get out of a job he’s not…
-Reviewed by Rebecca Burns- Niagara by Evangeline Jennings is a short, stand-alone story, around 10,000 words in length and divided into two sections. Jennings launches straight into the story with a description of Ellie, the central character. The portrait is pitted and sharp, immediately conveying Ellie’s unhappy life: If there was one thing Eleanor hated…
-Reviewed by Adrian Slatcher- David Rawson’s Fuckhead is a fascinating novella/essay about two brothers. The narrator has VATER syndrome, a series of complex birth deformities, which create a lifetime of otherness – as he battles with having no anus, club foot, and a range of other disabilities. His brother is recently in remission from cancer, and…
-Reviewed by Holly Jazz Kotzé- Jenalyn is the eponymous story of a young woman from the Philippines and before I go any further with this review, I would just like to say, reading this just a week after the super-tornado Haiyan, how pertinent it is. In the story Jenalyn and her family are from the…