Minnie's Fiction Addiction
Because one more chapter is never enough
Category: Book Review
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👀 First impressions:Murder at Mount Fuji is a classic Japanese crime novel that places atmosphere and procedure firmly at the centre of its story. Set against the imposing presence of Mount Fuji, the novel follows a carefully constructed investigation in which social expectation, secrecy and restraint matter as much as physical evidence. From the outset, the tone…
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👀 First impressions:Set in a near future Kolkata on the brink of collapse, A Guardian and a Thief unfolds over the course of a single, harrowing week. Ma is preparing to leave India with her young daughter and elderly father to reunite with her husband in America when her purse containing their precious visas is stolen. At the…
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👀 First impressions:Other People’s Fun opens with Ruth at a point of quiet collapse. Her marriage has ended, her daughter is preparing to leave home, and her job feels like a dead end. She is lonely, overlooked, and unsure of what comes next. Into this emotional vacuum steps Sookie, a former school friend who once barely noticed…
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👀 First impressions:A Visit to the Husband Archive is a contemporary literary novel built around an original and slightly surreal idea. The story imagines an archive where women can revisit their former husbands, preserved as records rather than people, allowing reflection on love, marriage and the narratives we construct around relationships. From the outset, the novel signals…
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👀 First impressions:The Great Work positions itself as a thoughtful, introspective novel concerned with creativity, purpose and the pressure to produce something meaningful. From the outset it is clear that Sheldon Costa is aiming high, exploring big questions about ambition and identity through a character driven narrative. The tone is reflective and literary, signalling that this will…
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👀 First impressions:First published in 1991, Outlander opens just after the Second World War and follows Claire Randall, a former combat nurse enjoying a second honeymoon in Scotland. A visit to a mysterious stone circle changes everything when she is thrown back in time to 1743, landing in a Scotland on the brink of rebellion. What follows is…
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👀 First impressions:The Quiet Tenant is a psychological thriller centred on a serial killer and the women caught in his orbit, told through multiple perspectives including a woman held captive in his shed and his unsuspecting daughter. The premise is immediately unsettling and clearly inspired by real life cases, tapping into the true crime fascination that…
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👀 First impressions:Buckeye opens in Bonhomie, Ohio, in the charged emotional aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe. A fleeting moment of passion between Cal Jenkins and Margaret Salt sets the course for decades of consequence. Cal is marked by his inability to serve in the war, while Margaret is desperate to keep her own past hidden.…
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👀 First impressions:Some Bright Nowhere is a quiet but emotionally weighty novel about marriage, caregiving and the unbearable uncertainty of approaching loss. Eliot and Claire have been married for nearly forty years, their life together shaped by routine, compromise and deep affection. When Claire’s long battle with cancer nears its end, Eliot prepares himself for the practical…
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👀 First impressions:First published in 1974, The Dispossessed is a science fiction novel that explores politics, philosophy and human nature through the story of Shevek, a physicist living on the anarchist moon Anarres who travels to the capitalist planet Urras. Often described as an “ambiguous utopia”, the novel immediately signals that this will not be a…
Minnie's Fiction Addiction 