A blue-skinned boy brought up to be a god

Blue-Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu

In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy named Kalki is born with blue skin. He believes that he is the Hindu god Vishnu and that he can perform miracles. The truth, however, is much darker. As Kalki struggles to extract himself from under the thumb of his controlling father, he must also reconcile with the idea that everything he’s ever been told might not be true. When his father drags him on a tour to America, Kalki seizes his chance to explore what life as an ordinary man might be like.

I was really intrigued by the concept of this book – how one boy, brought up his entire life believing he is a god with incredible healing powers, has his entire world shaken when he starts to question everything he has been told. But unfortunately, the execution of the story didn’t live up to the premise.

The first half of the book is very slow. It details the story of Kalki’s everyday life in India, where everyone believes him to be a god and where he carries out healing rituals to help those in need. Then in the second half, when the action moves to America, the pace speeds up until it rushes very quickly to an unsatisfactory ending.

My main problem with this book is that I felt no connection to the characters. Something about the writing style created a distance between the reader and the characters – we are consistently told what characters are feeling, rather than being shown it, meaning that even when the big emotional scenes happen, it seems insincere.

A good concept, but lacking in emotional impact.

Historical novel plunges you into the debauched world of the Jacobean court

The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore

How have I, Francis Bacon, well-known as the cleverest man in England, been caught in this trap? For years I survived the brutal games of the English court, driven by the whims of the idiot King James I – and finally, I was winning. But now, at the moment of my greatest success, a deadly alliance of my enemies has begun closing in on me. Led by the King’s beautiful and poisonous lover, Carr, this new alliance threatens to turn our foolish King against me. But I have concocted a brilliant new plan: I will find my own beguiling young man and supplant Carr in the King’s bed, and take power for myself. All I need to do is find him, my beautiful and mysterious creature, my perfect chess move.

I had some trepidation about this book at first. It’s written in such a unique, in-your-face voice that I think it’s going to be quite a love-it-or-hate-it thing. It took me a while to really get in board with it – particularly as it takes some time for the plot to get going – but by the halfway point, I was utterly engrossed.

The story plunges you headlong into the world of the Jacobean court. It’s a place of drama and debauchery, love and lust, intrigue and danger. Bacon – a foul-mouthed, amoral know-it-all – is our guide to this world. There’s a fair bit of info-dumping in the first few chapters before Blackmore seems to find his feet, but it’s a lot of fun once he lets his characters run loose.

Most of all, I loved the relationship between Bacon and his protege, George Villiers. It’s fascinating to watch as it develops, from two men wary and perhaps even afraid of each other, to something more intimate. Their clash of words and personalities at times left me breathless.

A thrilling, enjoyable read for any historical fiction fan.

Historic novel explores the aftermath of the fall of Troy

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors – all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo – camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

Barker continues her retelling of The Iliad, which began with The Silence of the Girls, putting the focus on the women who are often forbidden to a voice in this classic tale. While the first book told the story of the siege of Troy, this second book is set after the fall of the city, in the immediate aftermath of a battle which saw all Troy’s male inhabitants slaughtered and most of its female citizens captured as slaves.

The setting is undeniably fascinating. The horrific reality of life for the surviving women is vividly brought to life. With a culture of violence and tensions simmering just below the surface, the Greek camp is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark to set it all aflame. Unfortunately, this tension remains below the surface throughout the book, and very little actually happens.

Our main characters is Briseis, formerly Achilles’ prize, now pregnant with his child and married to Alcimus. She spends most of her time wandering around the camp, visiting the other women – including Helen, Hecuba and Cassandra – and having the same repetitive conversations over and over again.

While this book claims to give a voice to the women of The Iliad, there are several chapters here focusing on Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and Calchas, a prophet. Barker did the same with The Silence of the Girls, where there were more than a few chapters from Achilles’ point of view. I can’t really understand why, as it seems to undermine the whole point of this series.

Though this book had its problems, I admittedly would probably read the next book – assuming there’s going to be another one – in the hope that there would be a bit more meat to the plot.

Wife, politician, mother, traitor: Who was Cecily Neville?

Cecily by Annie Garthwaite

You are born high, but marry a traitor’s son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise. You are Cecily. But when the king who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason – death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.

I’ve always loved historical fiction, but it’s been a while since I returned to the period I love the most – the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors. So the release of this new book seemed like the perfect chance to step back to this fascinating time. And what a book to do it with.

Cecily is a fascinating portrayal of an incredible woman – a wife, mother, politician, strategist, and queen in all but name. While many books have been written about the Wars of the Roses from the male perspective, women are often relegated to the background. But here, Cecily takes centre stage. Working quietly and diligently to determine the course of events, using her astounding intelligence and political know-how, she strives to gain power for herself and her family. And while she doesn’t always succeed, she always comes back stronger.

Garthwaite delves deep into her protagonist’s psyche, creating a detailed portrait of an unsentimental, power-hungry, ruthless woman – but also a woman whose love for her children transcends all else, and who knows when shrewdness is more important than pride.

The writing had a different style to other historical fiction novels about famous women, with its blunt descriptions, keen psychological insights and examinations of the violent machinations of power. It reads like a real-life Game of Thrones, taking you away from the battlefields and into the dimly-lit rooms and shadowy corridors where real power is lost and won.

There are no clear-cut heroes and villains here. Everyone is shown to be capable of terrible things in the pursuit of what they want, just as everyone is shown to be capable of small acts of kindness and mercy. It’s a brutal, bloody, cut-throat world, peopled by those hungry and desperate enough for power, to make choices that will change the course of history.

Cecily is an incredible protagonist and, though the pace in the middle of the book is quite slow, the heart-pounding finale more than makes up for it.

Time-hopping love story is a wonderfully quirky read

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard isn’t signed with a name, but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he’s determined to find the writer. His search will take him from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battleships of a lost empire’s Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself. 

God, I love Natasha Pulley. She’s the only author I can think of who can name a character Missouri Kite and I’ll totally go along with it. I had very high expectations after falling in love with The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and its sequel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, which was my favourite book of 2020. She has such a magical touch with writing, both with her characters and with the worlds she creates, that totally absorbs the reader and leaves them heartbroken at the end to leave the story behind.

As with Pulley’s other books, The Kingdoms is a bizarre, complicated, many-headed creature and, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t always completely understand what was going on. But the writing and the character development and the action scenes were so good, that my confusion just didn’t matter at all. It’s an epic, time-hopping love story, taking the reader from battle scenes on the high seas to the dank cells of Newgate gaol.

Joe and the aforementioned Kite are both fantastically realistic and flawed characters. Pulley has a way of writing about the relationships between characters – whether they’re siblings, friends, lovers, enemies – that makes my heart squeeze and my blood sing. A gesture, a couple of words, a quick glance, can be imbued with so much meaning and empathy that I quickly became obsessed with every single character in this story.

There are many different settings in this book, taking in many different time periods, and each one is brought vividly to life on the page. The writing is atmospheric and wonderfully quirky. The plot is propelled by mystery but never loses sight of the characters at its core.

I was devastated to turn the final page and finish this book, only because I’d enjoyed spending so much time in this world with these characters. It’s full of heart and beauty and atmosphere. It’s the kind of story that lodges in your brain and refuses to leave. It’s a book I’ve no doubt I’ll return to read again, and anything Pulley writes in the future will be going straight to the top of my TBR pile.

Immersive retelling of Ancient Greek myth

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods, drawing their attention can cost you everything. In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?

This book follows in the footsteps of Circe and The Silence of the Girls, continuing the recent trend of retellings of Ancient Greek myths. While it lacks some of the power of these previous novels, Ariadne is nevertheless an immersive, atmospheric book.

It’s a story that’s very much concerned with the powerlessness of women in a society that sees them only as wives and mothers. Though Ariadne and Phaedra are princesses, they are confined to the palace, knowing that their father holds their futures in the palm of his hand. At any moment he can decide that it is time for them to marry, and they will be forced to board a ship and sail away from everything they know, to spend the rest of their lives with a man they’ve never met before.

As well as being subject to the whims of men, the two princesses are also under threat from the will of the gods. They both know only too well that lives can be destroyed when gods get bored.

The problem with this book is that it’s billed as a feminist retelling, but there’s really not a whole lot of feminism to be had here (minor spoilers ahead). After a key decision made at the start of the novel, Ariadne spends the rest of the book either standing still or caught up in someone else’s plans. The message seems to be ‘this is a world in which bad things happen to women’, and I really wanted something to happen to break that pattern.

It’s a shame, because this is otherwise a beautifully written and atmospheric book. If you enjoyed other recent Greek retellings, no doubt you’ll enjoy this one too – just don’t get too hung up on the ‘feminist’ label.

Life in a circus in Victorian England

Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal

1866. In an English coastal village, Nell picks violets for a living. Set apart by her community because of the birthmarks that speckle her skin, Nell’s world is her beloved brother and devotion to the sea. But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has sold her, promising Jasper Jupiter his very own leopard girl. It is the greatest betrayal of Nell’s life, but as her fame grows, and she finds friendship with the other performers and Jasper’s gentle brother Toby, she begins to wonder if joining the show is the best thing that has ever happened to her. But who gets to tell Nell’s story? What happens when her fame threatens to eclipse that of the showman who bought her? And as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the terrible secret that binds him to his brother?

I was more than a little excited to read Elizabeth Macneal’s second novel, as her debut, The Doll Factory, was one of my favourite books of 2019. In Circus of Wonders, she has once again demonstrated her impressive writing skill and her gift for creating an authentic historical atmosphere.

Macneal transports the reader to Victorian England, to a time when the public were obsessed with looking at, learning about and being in the presence of ‘freaks’ and curiosities. Anyone who differed from the norm could be paraded in front of spectators for a price, earning money for unscrupulous men in search of a profit. Surely most people by now have seen The Greatest Showman – Circus of Wonders paints a very different picture from the point of view of those forced to perform and parade their differences, whether they want to or not.

Nell is a wonderfully three-dimensional character. As someone who has never been able to fit in anywhere, her determination to keep her head down and stay out of the way wars with an inner fury that she is obliged to do so. With the circus, she seems to find the freedom she has longed for. But Jasper, her new boss, is a terrifying character, his inner demons often escaping in bouts of violence. Toby is utterly caught up in his brother’s plans, both attracted to and horrified by Jasper’s ruthlessness.

The book did have a few flaws, namely a considerable slowing of pace towards the middle and the characters’ constant complaining, which became a bit wearying to read.

Despite this, I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to historical fiction fans. The focus on storytelling, on the man-made transformation of human into myth, elevates this book into a truly compelling and unique story.

Writer discovers her ruthless ambition in twisted thriller

Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

Florence Darrow wants to be a writer. Correction: Florence Darrow IS going to be a writer. Fired from her first job in publishing, she jumps at the chance to be assistant to the celebrated Maud Dixon, the anonymous bestselling novelist. The arrangement comes with conditions – high secrecy, living in an isolated house in the countryside. Before long, the two of them travel on a research trip to Morocco, to inspire Maud’s highly-anticipated second novel. Beach walks, red sunsets, and whisky-filled evening discussions… it’s a win-win, surely? Until Florence wakes up in hospital, having narrowly survived a car crash. How did it happen – and where is Maud Dixon, who was in the car with her?

A twisty-turny thriller with more than a few echoes of The Talented Mr Ripley, Andrews’ debut novel is undoubtedly a lot of fun, even if it did have a few flaws.

Andrews is clearly a talented writer. Despite a somewhat slow start to the book, the plot soon takes the reader on a series of sudden changes so that you can never be quite sure what’s going to happen next. The prose is sharp and at times bitingly funny, with a sly wit that sometimes takes you by surprise.

I do enjoy a story with an unlikeable protagonist, and Florence is certainly that. She’s jealous and complains a lot, she looks down on others to the point of deliberate cruelty, and she’s ruthlessly ambitious. But I liked spending time in her company all the same, because her desire to escape a boring life of office drudgery is so relatable.

However, the story does lose its way towards the end. Without giving too much away, I didn’t like the direction Maud’s character took, and there are several useless characters introduced who have little to no impact on the plot. There were also a couple of plot points that I found just too far beyond my suspension of disbelief.

Despite this, it was still an enjoyable read, and one I would recommend to thriller fans.