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📂 **Category**: Books,Culture,Fantasy books,Horror books,Science fiction books
💡 **What You’ll Learn**:
Nowhere to Burn by Catriona Ward (Viper, £16.99)
The talented horror/crime thriller combines supernatural, psychological and very human horror in a story that draws on elements ranging from Peter Pan to historical serial abusers. It wasn’t anywhere located in a remote American mountain valley. When it burned, the horrific crimes committed by Hollywood star Liv Wenham against young people were revealed. Later, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, living on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley had heard the rumours, but only when she saw a boy dressed in green – or was it a girl? – She hovers outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find any place where she realizes this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from her sadistic guardian. Her experiences are intertwined with the stories of others drawn there: Mark, a journalist determined to get into the castle; Adam, the only one of Liv’s victims to survive; The pioneers who built the first house in the valley, and others. A dark, compelling and very twisted story.
The Heathens by James Alistair Henry (Moonflower, £9.99)
In this entertaining alternate history, we are in a 21st century Britain where the Norman Conquest never happened, divided along religious and cultural lines. The Saxons are led by the High King, who rules the greater part of England; Scotland is behind a wall, allied with the Nordic Economic Union; The indigenous Celts are second-class citizens. While preparing for a London summit to discuss plans for British unification, a Celtic negotiator was found dead, nailed to a tree in Epping Forest. Detective Captain Edith Mercia of the London Police teams up with Drustan of the Dumnonian Tribal Police in the search for what appears to be a religiously motivated serial killer; They find evidence that there may be a greater political threat. It’s a great read, combining clever world-building with engaging characters and a thrilling story, and ending with the promise of more to come.
Pedro the broad By Simon Lopez Trujillo, translated by Robin Myers (Author, £9.99)
This short, intense novel by an award-winning Chilean author is speculative fiction about an ominous change in human life as we know it in the wake of environmental devastation. Four forest workers contract a fungal infection that affects their brains. The sole survivor wakes up from a coma. He speaks with a new voice about being part of a greater whole rather than one sinful individual, and has been declared a prophet by a religious sect. Told through alternating points of view, moving between conscious and subconscious experience, from the daily life of a poor rural family to a scientist investigating wildlife, it is a disturbing, hallucinogenic journey that lingers in the mind.
Operation bounce house By Matt Dinniman (Michael Joseph, £22)
The colony planet of New Sonora was originally settled by convicts and political dissidents. Now their adult descendants are industrious farmers on the brink of a new age, as the opening of a transport portal above the planet will allow instantaneous travel between New Sonora and Earth. Our hero, young Oliver Lewis, learns that an evacuation order has been issued on the planet, and that action is planned to eliminate any remaining “terrorists.” A variety of war machines arrive, but no soldiers. The government has outsourced the cleansing of the planet to a company that makes video games: the killing machines will be controlled by eager young gamers on Earth. The farmers now designated as targets have no weapons; They can just reprogram their agricultural drones for protection and try to convince the people of Earth that they are just like them. An entertaining story that distorts an uncomfortable aspect of today’s world: “Imagine a war where all the soldiers paid money for the chance to fight in it. It’s wonderful.”
A Monster Slinks Into Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang (Dead Ink, £11.99)
This debut novel by a Chinese American writer uses a magical realist lens to examine some of the darker aspects of twentieth-century Chinese history and its legacy of generational trauma. Qianze has not had any contact with her father since he abandoned the family on her fourteenth birthday. When he appeared 11 years later, speaking of a prophecy, she was horrified, but had to be a “good Chinese daughter” and take care of him. Ultimately, he uncovers her hidden family history, and not only remembers his own shameful experiences as a child during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but is able to channel his parents’ memories from years before his birth. Beautifully written, the novel seamlessly blends supernatural elements with everyday life, creating a powerful, multilingual story of cruelty, pain, love, and survival.
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