Category: Class

Class, Novels, Post Apocalyptic, Sci Fi, Social Issues

Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky – A Review

by HelenLeave a Comment on Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky – A Review
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky – A Review

Firewalkers, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, is a brutal meditation on class division and climate change.

The mega rich are escaping a barren, parched Earth into opulent space liners with every amenity. The novel is centred on a liner named the Grand Celeste. The wealthy – or sonko – wait their turn to ascend in antebellum hotels. These are staffed by middle class workers who delusionally hope for their spot in heaven. And working class people living in crammed townships, like Ankara.

Firewalkers are working people who maintain the infrastructure of the luxury space ports.

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Addiction, Class, Interactive Fiction, LGBTQ, Life, Loss and Grief, Memory, Social Issues, Unreliable Narrator

Tell Me Why, by DontNod Entertainment – A Review

by HelenLeave a Comment on Tell Me Why, by DontNod Entertainment – A Review
Tell Me Why, by DontNod Entertainment – A Review

Tell Me Why is a narrative game by DontNod Entertainment, following a pair of twins, Tyler and Alyson, with the ability to communicate with each other through telepathy, who reunite after ten years in their hometown in rural Alaska and investigate the death of their mother.

This spooky, fairytale style mystery explores themes of love, loss, memory and acceptance, in a bleak yet beautiful setting.

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Agatha Christie, Class, Detective, Loss and Grief, Memory, Novels, Romance

The Hollow by Agatha Christie – A Review

by HelenLeave a Comment on The Hollow by Agatha Christie – A Review
The Hollow by Agatha Christie – A Review

The Hollow by Agatha Christie, published in 1946, explores a dangerous love triangle in this wonderful country house mystery. The great Belgian detective Poirot is holidaying at a nearby cottage. He is invited to join the Angkatell family for lunch, with their guests the Christows.

Synopsis

Lucy Angkatell invited Hercule Poirot to lunch. To tease the great detective, her guests stage a mock murder beside the swimming pool. Unfortunately, the victim plays the scene for real. As his blood drips into the water, John Christow gasps one final word: ‘Henrietta’. In the confusion, a gun sinks to the bottom of the pool.

Poirot’s enquiries reveal a complex web of romantic attachments. It seems everyone in the drama is a suspect – and each a victim of love.

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Class, Feminist, LGBTQ, Life, Non-Fiction, On Reading

Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Review

by Helen4 Comments on Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Review
Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Review

I’m sure most people have heard of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy, and the controversy about it. I thought of reviewing the book at the time (which I borrowed via my local Borrowbox library app). However I rarely write negative reviews. And from the language I read she had used, I was fairly sure a review would have to be negative.

I was correct.

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Addiction, Class, Feminist, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ, Life, Loss and Grief, Novels, Ottessa Moshfegh, Social Issues

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh – Review

by Helen1 Comment on Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh – Review
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh – Review

Eileen is a 2015 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh. The novel is a memoir of the past, retelling Eileen’s last week in a freezing, miserable Massachusetts town, in the 1960s. It also functions as a rich and disturbing character study.
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Agatha Christie, Class, Detective, Historical Fiction, Novels

Evil Under The Sun – Review

by HelenLeave a Comment on Evil Under The Sun – Review
Evil Under The Sun – Review

Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie, is another Poirot novel, published in 1941. Poirot attempts a pleasant summer holiday in Devon, and once again encounters love, lust and evil at a classic seaside resort hotel.

The premise is a similar but better version of Triangle at Rhodes. Its TV adaptation is my second favourite of the series, after Death on the Nile.

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