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Blurb

It’s 2006 in the fictional East London borough of Leytonstow. The UK’s pub smoking ban is about to happen, and thirty-eight-and-a-half year old John Torrington, a mopper and trolley collector at his local DIY store, is secretly in love with the stylish, beautiful, and middle-class barmaid Lois. John and his hapless, strange, and down-on-their-luck friends, Gabby Longfeather and Glyn Hopkins, live in Clements Markham House – a semi-derelict Edwardian villa divided into unsanitary bedsits, and (mis)managed by the shrewd, Dickensian business man, Mr Kapoor.

When Mr Kapoor, in a bizarre and criminal fluke, makes him fabulously credit-worthy, John surprises his friends and colleagues alike by announcing he will organise an amazing ‘urban love revolution’, aka the Dig Street Festival. But when he discovers dark secrets at the DIY store, and Mr Kapoor’s ruthless gentrification scheme for Clements Markham House, John’s plans take several unexpected and worrisome turns…

Funny, original, philosophical, and unexpectedly moving, The Dig Street Festival takes a long, hard, satirical look at modern British life, and asks of us all, how can we be better people?

Review

I’m so delighted to be back with my favourite combo of a Damp Pebbles blog tour for a Louise Walters book! Thank you to Louise for providing me with a digital arc – although I couldn’t resist getting the paperback, which is gorgeous, and includes fabulous photography by the author on the inside covers.

The Dig Street Festival is beyond quirky – it is a surreal, madcap adventure through the streets of the fictional borough of Leytonstow, led by our narrator, John Torrington, a man who finds himself on the fringes of society, and his ‘found family’, Glyn and Gabby, two of the best characters I have come across for a long time.

A lot happens in this book, most of it completely bizarre, and at times it almost feels overstuffed with incidents. But for me, this is all part of the fun – the novel has a breathless excitement that carries you along, no matter how strange things gets. I was very happy to willingly suspend my disbelief and follow John, Glyn and the wonderful, beautiful Gabby as they try to save their crumbling home, Clements Markham House, uncover nefarious schemes at the DIY store where John and Glyn (and briefly, Gabby!) work, and suddenly find themselves artificially rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Dig Street is masses of fun, but it also has both brains and heart. Glyn in particular is a really interesting character – at first I didn’t warm to him, falling head over heels for the childish, naive, gorgeous Gabby instead, but as the novel progressed, Glyn’s eccentric wisdom and oddly peaceful acceptance of his own quirks and mores grew on me, and I think there is something very profound about him as a character. Which seems an odd thing to say about a man whose defining characteristic is his penchant for gentlemen’s magazines of a certain genre, but then, this is an odd book.

The Dig Street Festival is also a brilliant exploration of male friendship, subverting norms and expectations at every turn, and, wonderfully, showing three men who love each other and hug each other and despair of each other with a depth of feeling that is rarely shown in fiction. The trio at the heart of the novel is the emotional core from which all the crazy adventures spiral out, and I loved to see it.

The novel is highly original, and it doesn’t bear direct comparison with much else that I have read, but I was reminded at times of Drew Gummerson’s equally quirky and hilarious Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel, which I read last year. What these books share, I think, is a determination to forge their own path, to explore characters who don’t fit neatly into predefined boxes, and, perhaps most importantly, to have FUN with the story and with language and ideas. It is no coincidence that they’re both published by wonderful indie presses. We need books like this, to push the boundaries, to be playful and funny and wise all at once, to show the beating human heart beneath the oddness. John, Glyn and Gabby (oh Gabby, I’m so fond of you still) may not be the characters you’re expecting from your fiction, but, my god, they are the characters we need.

About the Author

Chris Walsh grew up in Middlesbrough and now lives in Kent. He writes both fiction and non-fiction, an example of which you can read here in May 2020’s Moxy Magazine.

Chris’s debut novel The Dig Street Festival will be published by Louise Walters Books in April 2021. 

Chris’s favourite novel is Stoner by John Williams and his favourite novella is The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy. His top poet is Philip Larkin. He is also a fan of Spike Milligan.

Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WalshWrites

Purchase Links

Louise Walters Books: http://bit.ly/3f9jJvz

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3cakZfQ

Foyles: https://bit.ly/3lBCCIJ

Waterstones: http://bit.ly/3tO2VhH

Book Depository: http://bit.ly/3caF7yg

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2QoYsn3

Publishing Information

Published in paperback and digital formats by Louise Walters Books on 15^th April 2021

Blurb

She could be the girl dancing on tables one night, and the next she’d be hiding in the shadows.

Just when I thought I understood her, she would melt away and become a completely new person, and I’d have to start all over again.

That’s how it was with Anna.
_______

Nick and Anna work the same summer job at their local cinema. Anna is mysterious, beautiful, and from a very different world to Nick.

She’s grown up preparing for the end of days, in a tightly-controlled existence where Christmas, getting drunk and sex before marriage are all off-limits.

So when Nick comes into her life, Anna falls passionately in love. Their shared world burns with poetry and music, cigarettes and conversation – hints of the people they hope to become.

But Anna, on the cusp of adulthood, is afraid to give up everything she’s ever believed in, and everyone she’s ever loved. She walks away, and Nick doesn’t stop her.

Years later, a tragedy draws Anna back into Nick’s life.

But rekindling their relationship leaves Anna and Nick facing a terrible choice between a love that’s endured decades, and the promises they’ve made to others along the way.

Review

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for my spot on the blog tour, and for providing me with a gorgeous finished copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t read that many love stories, mostly because I enjoy having absolutely no idea what is going to happen in a novel, but as the tagline for this book says, this is not just another love story. The characters in Another Life are complicated and frustrating and very, very real. The relationship at the heart of the book has echoes of the couple in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, two young people who have found each other before they have really found themselves. Anna is such an interesting character, brought up in a religion that sees non-believers, or ‘worldly’ people, as distinctly ‘other’ and not to be trusted, and while she has her rebellious side, it is clear that she is still firmly rooted in the traditions she’s been raised with. I think Chapman, who draws on her own experiences here, does a wonderful job of showing just how agonising and difficult it can be to go against the only life you know – the way that Anna keeps getting pulled back to her roots is completely understandable.

Nick, too, is a fascinating character, and his family history is heart-breaking. I won’t give anything away here, but by the end of Part One, I was crying my eyes out. As we follow Nick into his future, we can see how he, too, has forces holding him back, in a different way to Anna, but no less powerful. Their interactions in later years are so poignant and realistic – there is no simple answer to overcoming the obstacles that keep them apart. The only character in the whole book I wasn’t totally convinced by was Laura, whose storyline seemed a little too convenient for me personally, but the other secondary characters, particularly Sal, more than made up for this. I loved Sal A LOT.

This novel is complex, beautifully written, utterly absorbing, and very hard to tear yourself away from once you’ve started reading. I really liked the way that Another Life doesn’t dismiss the feelings of young people as simply naive or foolish – there is an intensity to emotions experienced in your late teens and early twenties that is captured brilliantly here, without judgement or dismissiveness, and it made me ache for the time when I felt things so deeply. This is a nostalgic, intelligent, fascinating book – a love story, yes, but so much more besides.

Another Life by Jodie Chapman is out now from Michael Joseph Books and is available to purchase here.

I am delighted to be able to share a fabulous competition with you all today! Simon Van der Velde, author of the bestselling short story collection Backstories, is offering THREE lucky readers the chance to win a signed copy of the book, along with a chocolate treat!

Full details of the competition and how to enter are in the PDF below, but here’s the extract – to be in with a chance of winning, you need to guess who the lost little boy in the story is, and then sign up on Simon’s website here with your guess!

Here is the full PDF with instructions:

And here is my review of Backstories if you need extra convincing to enter!

GOOD LUCK!

Blurb

Parents have a natural and automatic desire to rescue, protect and shield their children from difficult situations. Parents want to show their love by stepping in and helping wherever they can: with homework, bedtime monsters, the dark, new experiences, making friends…

But by rescuing our children, are we helping them to build their self- esteem? By stepping in and fixing things, we communicate that we don’t think they can do it on their own. We make them think they need us. What if there was a better way?

This book will give parents the skills to guide their children to find their own solutions and to create new possibilities. These tried and tested coaching skills, drawn from the author’s vast experience of working with parents and children, will give children choices. It will give them a positive mindset, and an ‘I can’ attitude.

If we can show children how to fix things for themselves, then we set them up for a lifetime of independence, and confidence in their own abilities.

Review

I reviewed Judy’s book Understanding Children and Teens at the end of last year, and I have found it really helpful – I still use quite a few of the techniques with my kids. So I was very pleased when Helen at Literally PR reached out and asked me to join the blog tour for Judy’s latest book. Huge thanks to Helen, Judy and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

One of the reasons that Judy’s work resonates so strongly with me is that as a child, I was a real ‘bottler’ of feelings. I was a highly emotional, highly imaginative child who gradually learned to push everything down and lock it up tight, and I very strongly believe that my struggles with depression later on in life were intimately connected with this repression of my emotions. Don’t worry, I have since let it ALL out (and then some!) but when I became a parent, I promised myself that I would make sure my kids felt able to express and process their emotions openly.

A key technique that Judy introduced me to is describing emotions in terms of colour. This has been so useful with both of my children, but especially with the youngest, who has really latched onto the idea, and can name a whole spectrum of emotions according to his own personal rainbow (with some pretty surprising colour choices – but hey, it’s his thing!) In Empower Your Kids! this is expanded upon, and this week we’ve been describing his feelings using colours, size (comparisons to animals and fruits, as per Judy’s advice!), whether it is moving or still, hard or soft. It is really special to see a four year old thinking about his emotions in such a way – there’s very little hesitation, he gets the concept entirely, and I think it is really useful for him.

The tapping is something I’m still getting to grips with it – I am actually using it for my own anxiety, and once I feel more confident, I’m going to use it with the kids. We do a sort of version of our own at the moment – I have tattoos of the kids’ initials on my wrists, and when my daughter started at her new school, I told her to tap on her wrist in the spot where I have her initial, and now when she comes back she asks me how many taps I felt. It just gives her a little bit of security and connection. Judy describes EFT, or tapping, as acupuncture without the needles, and she explains it in her trademark straightforward, easy to understand style. There is a very good section in Empower Your Kids! about supporting your own wellbeing with tapping – as parents, we really do need to focus on our own mental health if we are to support our kids as we would wish – and the exercises that she leads the reader through are extremely useful.

This is a practical, informative, easy to follow guide that I know I will be referring to again and again. Together with Understanding Children and Teens, I feel I now have a really useful reference set for dealing with my own and my kids’ emotions in the way that I had always hoped to – openly, honestly, without judgement. No parent can be perfect, and I mess up A LOT, but I feel much more confident having these brilliant resources to hand.

About the Author

Judy Bartkowiak is an NLP trainer and coach as well as an EFT trainer and coach who specialises in working with children and teens.  Before becoming a therapist, she worked in market research, and then ran a Montessori nursery alongside her therapeutic work. She has written extensively on NLP. 

Empower Your Kids! A coaching guide for parents by Judy Bartkowiak is published by Free Association Books and is available to purchase here.

March has been a great month of reading. My reading pace seems pretty set at around 10 books a month – I do wish I could read more, just because I have so many amazing-sounding books on my TBR, but one of my intentions for this year was to focus less on numbers and more on quality, and that I have certainly achieved. I began this month with a really strong theme of dark books about motherhood, and that kind of continued throughout the month, interwoven with my usual fairly eclectic mix of books! Here’s a quick round-up of my March reading, with links to my full reviews should you care to read more!

The Push by Ashley Audrain (2021)

This novel is excellent. Compelling, disturbing, and sharp, it is a gripping read that had me holding my breath as I turned the pages. I highly recommend The Push if you like your books intelligently written and tinged with darkness. You can read my full review here.

Call Me Mummy by Tina Baker (2021)

I loved Call Me Mummy. It is so disturbing, but it is also surprisingly funny. The humour is dark, of course, but that’s my favourite type. My full review of this brilliant, terrifying book is here.

Backstories by Simon Van der Velde (2021)

This brilliant collection of short stories offers a unique reading experience. One not to be missed, I can see myself revisiting these stories often. You can read my full review here.

Little Bandaged Days by Kyra Wilder (2020)

The language in this portrait of a descent into madness is exquisite, and though it is not an easy book to read in terms of subject matter, I was completely absorbed by it. My full review of Little Bandaged Days is here.

From My Balcony to Yours by Nino Gugunishvili (2020)

This is the first book I have read which directly references the current pandemic. And yet, it is full of humour, uplifting anecdotes, and hope. It is a slim book, and a total joy. You can read my full review of this lovely book here.

Manipulated Lives by H.A. Leuschel (2016)

I was on the Damp Pebbles blog tour for this interesting exploration of narcissistic personalities and manipulation. My full review of Manipulated Lives is here.

The Smash-Up by Ali Benjamin (2021)

This was my second buddy read with the good people at riverrun books. It is always such a pleasure to chat with like-minded bookish folk, and we had so much fun delving into the complex, highly relevant issues explored in this novel. You can read my full review here.

Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding (2021)

My final ‘dark side of motherhood’ book this month, and one that had a really strong emotional impact on me. You can read my full review of Bright Burning Things here.

My Brother the Messiah by Martin Vopenka translated by Anna Gustova Bryson (2021)

This book is a gem, a fascinating, surprisingly tender dystopian novel which places the focus firmly on the characters rather than the dystopia. The premise is incredibly powerful, and it’s executed brilliantly. You can read my full review here.

What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson (2021)

My final read of the month was something of a last-minute surprise – I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I absolutely adored this book. It hits so many sweet spots for me as a reader – it is “Cormac McCarthy does YA” (meant as an enormous compliment!) and I can’t stop thinking about it. My review is out today as part of The Write Reads blog tour, and you can check it out here.

It has been another fabulous month for reading, and as always, I am SO grateful to the authors, publishers, publicists and blog tour organisers who have introduced me to such a range of fantastic books. I feel so lucky to be a part of the bookish community. I’d love to hear what you’ve enjoyed this month, so do comment below!

Happy reading!

Ellie x

Blurb

When everything you love is in danger, how long can you keep running to survive?

Life can be brutal
Winter in Idaho. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.

Jack knew it
Jack Dahl has nothing left. Except his younger brother, Matty, who he’d die for. Their mother is gone, and their funds are quickly dwindling, Jack needs to make a choice: lose his brother to foster care, or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.

So did I
Ava lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one.

Did I feel the flutter of wings when Jack and I met? Did I sense the coming tornado?
But now Ava wants to break the rules – to let Jack in and open her heart. Then she discovers that Jack and her father are stalking the same money, and suddenly Ava is faced with a terrible choice: remain silent or speak out and help the brothers survive.

Looking back, I think I did . . .

Perfect for fans of Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff and Daniel Woodrell, What Beauty There Is an unforgettable debut novel that is as compulsive as it is beautiful, and unflinchingly explores the power of determination, survival and love.

Review

Huge thanks to The Write Reads, Penguin and the author for my spot on the blog tour, and for providing me with a beautiful proof copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m going to get straight to the point: What Beauty There Is is something special. This book had me hooked from the opening pages, from the first lines, in fact, and I was in thrall to the exquisite prose and heart-breaking story until the very end. I didn’t know what to expect from this book – I certainly wasn’t prepared for such a powerful, emotional reading experience.

There are clear influences here from literary giants such as Cormac McCarthy – and as I read, in my head, I affectionately called it No Country for Young Kids (the naming of the antagonist after the actor who plays Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers film is surely no coincidence). The Coen Brothers’ film Fargo is also called to mind by the stark, snowy setting and the delightful banter between the amiable cops. But this is no pastiche – this is homage paid and knowingly referenced by a writer who is aware that she is working within a tradition but expanding it and utilising it to focus on next generation and the awful price they pay for their parents’ crimes. In that sense, it also reminded me of David Joy’s brilliant novel Where All Light Tends To Go, which I read a couple of years ago, in which the young protagonist struggles to escape the cycle of poverty and crime and drug abuse that seems laid out for him as an inevitable path.

What is so incredibly special about this book is that while it wears its influences openly and proudly, it also manages to be startlingly unique. Anderson’s writing is what I call ‘crystalline’ prose – each phrase seems hewn from glittering rock or ice, beautifully carved, sparkling like sun on snow. I adore her writing, especially Ava’s first person narrative, which drifts gently to the head of each chapter, settling on top of Jack’s third person story, gilding it with beautiful, poetic words. Ava is a mesmerising, enigmatic character – both the heart and the head of the narrative, and I know I’ll be thinking about her for a very long time. Her transformation and the opening of her heart is beautiful to witness: delicately heroic, she carries the story.

The relationship between Jack and Matty is beautifully drawn, too. There is so much hope, I think, in the love the brothers show each other, despite the traumas of their upbringing and the horror of their current situation. There is much that is bleak in this book, but the bond between Jack and Matty is absolutely a thing of beauty. Their story is so tense, so wrenching – it is impossible not to be totally caught up in it. If I was being super pernickity, I might be able to pick out one or two points where the drama goes a tiny bit too far, or the co-incidences stack up a bit too neatly, but I don’t want to pull this novel apart – it’s a bit like how I felt about Where The Crawdads Sing – yes, maybe, possibly, there are one or two tiny signs of it being a debut novel, but I DON’T CARE! The emotional resonance of this novel overwhelms any urge I might have to turn ‘literary critic’ with this book; I love it fiercely, and it means a great deal to me, and that is such a thrill and a privilege as a reader.

I am by no means an expert on YA fiction – I don’t read nearly as much of it as many of my blogging friends, not for any particular reason, and quite possibly to my detriment as a reader – but if it can in some ways be seen as a transition, I can imagine a reader (not too young – there is a lot of violence and some pretty graphic descriptions, especially of Jack’s wounds) discovering Cory Anderson’s writing and then, in time, moving on to McCarthy’s The Road, to Denis Johnson, to Donald Ray Pollock – to writers who, like Anderson, explore the clash between violence and beauty, who sculpt gorgeous shapes out of the harsh realities of our brutal world, and show us the core of humanity. I for one am extremely grateful to have had the chance to discover this outstanding writer, and I can’t wait to see what she produces in the future.

What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson is published in the UK by Penguin on the 8th April and is available to purchase here.

About the Author

Cory Anderson is a winner of the League of Utah Writers Young Adult Novel Award and Grand Prize in the Storymakers Conference First Chapter Contest. She lives in Utah with her family. What Beauty There Is is her debut novel.

Links

Twitter: @coryanderwrites

Author website: https://coryanderson.us/

Blurb

It’s 2096. Scientists work to protect a baking planet. What a drought-stricken Europe needs is rain. What it gets is a messiah.

Eli is born in a suburb of Prague. A rainstorm heralds the birth. Perhaps this messiah is for real. Eli’s father abandons the family to become the dictator’s right-hand man. Eli’s elder brother Marek guides Eli through his short and powerful life.

Can tales of a messiah be enough to heal a ravaged planet in which few babies are born? If so, Marek works with the zeal of a prophet. Aged 72, he’s still going strong. A new follower joins Marek’s community, young Natalia. She awakens the old man to the joys of the body. But what’s the worth of a human love when the environment is collapsing? Marek sets out to find his answer.

My Brother the Messiah is a story about daring to seed the future of our planet.

Translated from the Czech by Anna Bryson Gustova.

Review

Thank you to (the other) Martin at Barbican Press for reaching out and offering me a copy of My Brother The Messiah in exchange for an honest review. I am always delighted to discover a new-to-me indie press, and Barbican has some excellent titles. Do check them out.

My Brother the Messiah would have made a great addition to my long-ago uni dissertation on dystopian fiction, in which I discussed 1984, Brave New World, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid’s Tale, if I remember rightly (like I say, it was a long time ago!). It is terrifyingly believable to see the planet’s climate ravaged by global warming and the ill-advised attempt to reverse it that follows, and the way society breaks down in pockets, the migration from uninhabitable areas, the collapse of democracy – it all rings scarily true.

And yet, in this novel, the dystopia is a backdrop rather than the main focus. This is, at its heart, a story about the relationship between Marek and Eli, his brother, whom Marek absolutely believes is the Messiah. What I found fascinating is that as I read Marek’s third person narrative, I absolutely believed it, too. For the purposes of this story, yes, Eli is the Messiah. His followers are the only ones who are unaffected by the declining birth rate. Even as an atheist, I didn’t feel that this was a story about figuring out the truth or otherwise of this claim (which isn’t even one that Eli himself makes) – it is about what it means for Marek to be the brother of such a man. And that is SUCH an interesting premise.

The narrative moves back and forth in time, so that Eli’s life story is intercut with ‘present day’ Marek’s struggles to stay true to his brother’s legacy. Natalia, the woman who becomes Marek’s lover, is a wonderful character, and I liked both the past and ‘present’ narratives just as much. The writing is beautiful – taut and spare and at times appropriately biblical. Indeed, despite the future setting of the book, there is a kind of historical feel to it, as if we are being gifted the story of Eli in a similar way to how the story of the previous Messiah was passed on. It is interesting to consider this in the light of the appearance of a note-taking student later on in the book, but I’ll leave that for you to discover if you read this brilliant book (which you should!)

The ending of My Brother the Messiah is perfect – I had no idea how it was all going to wrap up, and I was genuinely surprised and elated by the final pages. This is such an interesting, different novel – it is intelligent without being pretentious or difficult, unnerving yet also enormously tender, a story that will stay with me. I urge you to check this one out. It is a hugely thought-provoking read with love and warmth at its centre.

My Brother the Messiah by Martin Vopenka translated by Anna Bryson Gustova is published by Barbican Press and is available to purchase here.

Blurb

Dreamers, singers, heroes and killers, they can dazzle with their beauty, their talent or their unmitigated evil, yet inside themselves they are as frail and desperate as the rest of us. But can you see them? Can you unravel the truth?

These are people you know, but not as you know them.

Peel back the mask and see.

Review

Okay, so here is a rundown, in order, of who the famous people are in these stories: 1)…NO, I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t do that to you!

Thanks so much to the author for reaching out and for sending me a copy of Backstories in exchange for an honest review. I am really enjoying seeing how many of my blogger friends are also reading this book – I like the thought that we’re all trying to puzzle out the identities of the protagonists!

The game element of this collection is tremendous fun. Each story withholds just enough of the key details to make it a true guessing game. I got an inkling of about half of them before the ‘reveal’ but there were plenty of cool surprises. It is addictive as well – I read all fourteen stories in one sitting because I wanted to keep playing! The author handles the reveals skilfully, and they never come at the expense of the realism of the story. This interactive element makes for a really engaging, highly original reading experience, and I loved it.

What is also great about Backstories is that it is so much more than just a gimmick. These are also well-written, intelligent, varied short stories that stand up to repeated reading even once the jig is up and the identities are known. I read them through quickly for the fun of figuring out who each protagonist was, and then reread them as a more ‘conventional’ short story collection. There is a fantastic mixture of voices and styles, and it is impressive how well the author manages to convey different places and eras so effectively across a short span of pages. The stories are punchy, powerful, with beautifully written dialogue and a strongly visual quality. Van der Velde is a chameleon author, inhabiting different characters and voices subtly and skilfully. It all adds together to create a kind of ‘anthology’ feel to the collection, as if these really are written by different people, and it works very well.

I’m very keen to read more by this talented author, and I am delighted to hear that there is going to be a Backstories II. If you want a preview of one of the stories, head to the author’s website. I think this is a great collection for everyone, including people who maybe don’t ‘do’ short stories, or don’t read them often – I guarantee this collection will change your mind!

About the Author

Simon Van der Velde has worked variously as a barman, labourer, teacher, caterer and lawyer, as well as travelling throughout Europe and South America collecting characters and insights for his award-winning stories. Since completing a creative writing M.A. (with distinction) in 2010, Simon’s work has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards including; The Yeovil Literary Prize, (twice), The Wasafiri
New Writing Prize, The Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Frome Shortstory Prize, The Harry Bowling Prize, The Henshaw Press Short Story Competition and The National Association of Writers’ Groups Open Competition – establishing him as one of the UK’s foremost short-story writers. Simon now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with his wife, Nicola, their labradoodle, Barney and two tyrannical children.

Links

http://bit.ly/Goodreads-Backstories

http://bit.ly/Amazon-Backstories

http://bit.ly/BookBub-Backstories

 AUDIBLE

https://adbl.co/3rw4boT

www.simonvandervelde.com

Blurb

Being Tommy’s mother is too much for Sonya.

Too much love, too much fear, too much longing for the cool wine she gulps from the bottle each night. Because Sonya is burning the fish fingers, and driving too fast, and swimming too far from the shore, and Tommy’s life is in her hands.

Once there was the thrill of a London stage, a glowing acting career, fast cars, handsome men. But now there are blackouts and bare cupboards, and her estranged father showing up uninvited. There is Mrs O’Malley spying from across the road. There is the risk of losing Tommy – forever.

Review

I am very grateful to Laura Meyer at Bloomsbury for sending me a proof copy of this book. In a month in which I’d already read The Push, Call Me Mummy and Little Bandaged Days, Bright Burning Things could not have been more thematically appropriate, and like those books, it gripped me tight in its twisted claws.

I am not going to be able to write a long review of this book, for two reasons. The first is that I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. In itself, the story is quite straightforward – an alcoholic mother goes into rehab and returns home – but there is so much more to this book. Every page is stuffed full of tension and small, horrifying moments. It is the sort of book where you reach the end of a chapter and realise you’ve been holding your breath. The structure is surprising, in that the ‘rock bottom’ moment seems to occur earlier than you might expect, but Harding is doing something more with this book than just a ‘road to recovery’ story, and the narrative arc never plays out in a predictable way.

The second reason for keeping this review short is that I haven’t sorted through my feelings properly yet. I have a personal connection with this book, knowing and loving someone who is in recovery, and parts of this book felt so raw that I am not sure I want to share my full emotions here. It is a testament to Harding’s skill that it resonated so deeply. Sonya is such a complex, fascinating character – even though the story is told in the first person, I still felt as if I couldn’t quite get to the core of her, and I wonder if this is because she doesn’t even know herself fully. Her impulsive, reckless instincts take over often and sometimes in quite terrifying ways, and it was an oddly unnerving experience to be inside the mind of a protagonist I didn’t trust. And Tommy – oh Tommy! The depth of emotion I felt for him as I read was almost too real. There are hints and lines within this book that suggest that in some ways this is more his story than his mother’s. My heart broke for him so many times.

As for the end of the book – all I will say is that is one of those stories where you immediately have to find someone else who has read it so that you can compare notes (thanks Tilly!) – I am offering now to be on hand for anyone who needs an Oh My God moment upon finishing this fiercely uncompromising novel. If you follow my blog with any regularity (thank you, both of you) you’ll know that I love an unsettling read, and this book delivers that feeling in spades. I was physically uncomfortable at points, wanting to look away but unable to put it down. Bright Burning Things had a massive impact on me, and I will be thinking about it for a long time.

Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding is published by Bloomsbury and is available to purchase here.

Blurb

Five compelling true-to-life stories each highlighting a narcissist’s manipulative mind games

Narcissists are everywhere.

They can be witty, charming and highly charismatic.

Anyone can be their target.

At first their devious, calculating mind games can be hard to spot because they are masters of disguise, but then they revert to their true self of being controlling and angry in private. Their main aim: to dominate and use others to satisfy their needs, with a complete lack of compassion and empathy for their victim.

All stories highlight to what extent narcissistic abuse can distort lives and threaten our self-worth yet ultimately, also send a positive message that once the narcissist is unmasked, the victims can at last break free.

Review

Firstly, huge thanks to the author and to Emma at Damp Pebbles for my spot on the blog tour, and for sending me a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I love a good short story collection, and I was very intrigued by the premise of five stories each dealing with the same theme.

From a psychological perspective, this book is very illuminating. I didn’t know a lot about narcissistic personality disorder before I started reading, and I felt like the five ‘cases’ in this book gave me a greater insight into how manipulators work. The book also covers different stages of life in order to show how many people can be affected by the behaviour of narcissists. In ‘Tess and Tattoos’, we meet an older woman in a residential home; ‘The Runaway Girl’ presents a teenager faced with a manipulator, and the final story, ‘The Perfect Child’ takes us back to childhood to examine the early signs of this disorder.

The stand-out story for me was ‘The Spell’ – the narrator meets a young boy and his father and becomes a part of their lives. I really liked the way in which the story twists and turns, so that I wasn’t sure who was the manipulator until quite near the end. It is almost novella-length, allowing the story to stretch out and breathe, and I think this was the most engrossing tale for me. The Narcissist presented some nice variation of form, switching between points of view and allowing for a more medically-based explanation of narcissism, which was useful at that point.

It is an interesting concept to take a particular type of person and explore different manifestations of the effects they can have on others, and I think it works well. There is a lot of psychological insight behind these stories, and they feel, appropriately, like case studies. I would recommend this collection to anyone with an interest in psychology, or in understanding more about how manipulators operate.

About the Author

Helene Andrea Leuschel gained a Master in Journalism & Communication, which led to a career in radio and television in Brussels, London and Edinburgh. She later acquired a Master in Philosophy, specializing in the study of the mind. Helene has a particular interest in emotional, psychological and social well-being and this led her to write her first novel, Manipulated Lives, a fictional collection of five novellas, each highlighting the dangers of interacting with narcissists. She lives with her husband and two children in Portugal.

Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HALeuschel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HALeuschel/

Website: https://www.heleneleuschel.com/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/haleuschel/

Purchase Links

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2NJqNDI

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3bHPLLC

Manipulated Lives by H.A. Leuschel was first published in paperback and digital formats on 28th June 2016