Always Buy The Book

Valentine Grey Sandi Toksvig Rating: 4/5 The short version: If you stick around to the end, this book makes every second worth it. This review will contain spoilers. I picked up Valentine Grey because of its author. Historical fiction isn’t something I read much of, and I especially didn’t have much of an opinion about the Boer War before I read it. But I know and admire Sandi Toksvig for her honesty, humour and openness, and the book deals with the issues of gender and sexuality- not something I’ve seen a lot of fiction dealing with. I wanted to see what Toksvig’s style was like. It was good- not perfect, because there were issues with pacing at times, but with enough power and skill to make up for its little flaws. The critique of society is built up slowly throughout the book, and no side in the war is presented as morally superior- not even the heroine. As a queer British woman, I recognised so much of our society today in the flawed society of the book, ...

Favourite author feature: #1 Shannon Hale I have been reading books for a very long time. Longer than I can remember. But what I've found is that some authors have stuck in my memory much more vividly than others, and so I wanted to start this series to focus on some of those authors who have made my life to date so much more fun. I'm hoping to post a new part to the feature every six weeks or so. I haven't seen nearly enough people who've read Shannon Hale's books. She specialises in fantasy and fairytale retellings, and her books mostly revolve around women who don't rely on men and support each other as much as possible. These are the types of women young girls can aspire to be. And that's without mentioning the time and commitment she has dedicated to creating multiple fantasy worlds- it's exhausting enough to create a world with its own history, culture, political system etc once, let alone multiple times. Yet each new land feels fresh ...