Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep

Philip Reeve. David Fickling Books. (288p) ISBN: 9781788452373
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep

Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep

A book I’d requested through work as I’m a huge fan of Mortal Engines (plus Philip Reeve’s other works).

This latest book is a magnificent middle grade fantasy adventure following Utterly Dark, the ward of The Watcher of Wildsea.

When her ward drowns it sets a chain of events off that has this adventure crack along at a really fast pace and has you chewing your nails to the finale.

This speed doesn’t stop the story from building up some solid characters throughout. There are the Skraevelings who are the housekeepers of Sundown Watch, Will Dark is Utterly’s scientifically sceptical uncle, Thurza Froy the sea witch, Egg the boy who got kicked in the goolies, and Aish who is brilliant.

Then there is Utterly, the young girl swept up from the sea and cared for by Andrew Dark, her mystery is at the core of this book.

The interaction between these characters and the building of a solid mythology for the island helped me to invest heavily in the story of myths and magics.

Utterly engrossing and captivating story which will be out in the first week of September (2021).


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Cecily

Annie Garthwaite. Penguin. (384p) ISBN: 9780241476871
Cecily

Cecily

This gorgeous looking book arrived at work and I made sure that I was first to grab it!

When I got it home I was all prepared to start it straight away but someone else saw it and grabbed it and as they were reading it told me how brilliant it was.

I finally got a chance to read it a week before Annie was visiting the shop to sign some copies, though I didn’t finish it before her visit it was such a compelling tale that there were a few really late nights.

We know the dry history of this period, the histories written in the text books, dates and names, taught to us in a rote fashion.

What Annie does with Cecily is take this dry skeleton of history and adds flesh to it, adds personality and soul.

We not only get to see this turbulent period in a new fashion, we get to see it through the eyes of a woman at the centre of it all and from her perspective.

When I finished this it was a bit of a shock as all I wanted to do was continue reading as I had invested in these people so strongly and needed to know what happened next.

I know what happened next, but I need to feel what happens next.

A stunning book, and I really hope there is going to be a follow up in the same fashion exploring the next stage of the York dynasty.


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Igifu

Scholastique Mukasonga. Archipelago Books. (160p) ISBN: 9781939810786
Igifu

Igifu

It’s August so that must mean it’s Women in Translation month.

I’d already lined up quite a lot of novels and novellas for the month I was in the mood for some short story collections and did a shout out on Twitter for some suggestions. Igifu was one of the suggestions that really made me perk up and think I’ve not read any translated works from Rwanda, or sub-Saharan Africa before.

Scholastique Mukasonga builds upon a strong prose to bring to your heart a lost Rwanda through these heartfelt stories, full of family traditions, micro- and macro-politics, colonial impositions, but intertwined in grief and love throughout.

All the stories are brilliant at illuminating aspects of what life was like for Tutsi’s in exile during the genocides and. their aftermaths, and also shows what life was like before to some extent.

The collection is excellent throughout but I personally found ‘The Glorious Cow’ and ‘Grief’ to be the two strongest stories.

In ‘The Glorious Cow’ we hear of how the cows were treated and venerated as life givers and central to the culture of the families described in the story. Prestige and standing were both conferred through these beautiful animals, and the loss when they were slaughtered or had to be left behind when the genocide was ongoing is a different level of bereavement, a cultural loss.

Then there is ‘Grief’, such a strong story to end the collection on. Describing a woman’s discovery that she and her brother who had both left for exile in were the only ones of their family to escape slaughter during the genocide. We are taken through various stages of her personal grief, leading to some horrific discoveries and a knowledge that she has to be the conduit for the voices of the dead.

An emotionally crushing collection of short stories that are a must read, both for the history that’s imparted but also for the strength of Scholastique’s writing.


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