Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey
This book is immensely enjoyable and about as much fun as you can have with the end of the world. Lynskey takes us on a tour of the dystopia, from 1816 to today, taking in everything from Mary Shelley’s Last Man to The Last of Us, via Wells, Matheson, Wyndham, McCarthy, Mandel and more. Structured around the big human fears – Comet strikes! Nuclear war! Pandemics! Zombies! – Lynskey’s riveting book mixes politics and its effect on society’s fears, with the impact of that fear on tv shows, movies and books.
Everything Must Go feels like a real passion project and the fruit of a lifetime of reading and watching. It is such pleasurable feast for fans of dystopian fiction, a real book lover’s book – but prepare to add about 500 books to your tbr pile! – Tom M
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown
Rach, Shaz and Kel are from Doncaster, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They share everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs to trips to the Family Planning clinic when their periods are late (or when they’re pretending for attention). Following them through the schoolyards, clubs, cornfields and chippies of Donny, their friendship seems indestructible. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
Told in the Donny dialect, their voices jump off the page, and the sense of place, and time – mostly spent in the early 2000s – is visceral. Reading it feels like stepping through a time portal. This is a book about the things we tell our friends and the things we can’t, about gossip as currency, the terrible power of silence and the lovesick feeling of home. It’s a book that exposes the raw reality of girlhood, the ugly, painful and the beautiful. These girls are vivid, real, unique, and universal, so much so I felt a loss when I had to leave them.
Fans of Shuggie Bain, Trainspotting and Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels will love this audacious coming-of-age story. – Soffi
The Green Kingdom by Cornelia Funke
An absolutely delightful coming of age story with a slight puzzle twist. Caspia is sure that her summer has been ruined when her parents announce they’ll be moving to Brooklyn for her dad’s work – but just for the summer. But Brooklyn is a unique place, and the first day in their rental house, Caspia finds a stack of letters between two sisters from the 1950s. One sister was a talented seamstress living in Brooklyn, the other a blind botanist travelling the world with their father. On her travels the botanist sends her sister riddles of the Green Kingdom – plant riddles. And Caspia can’t refuse a good riddle. She decides to make the most of her summer by exploring Brooklyn through these riddles, making friends along the way.
This is a wonderful uplifting story for fans of Kate DiCamillo – a story of friendship, loving family, and local adventure. I loved every moment! – Hannah