Now that the autumn has got into full swing and everyone is dreaming of pumpkin puns and decorating their homes with cauldrons, what we are reading is also starting to get decidedly chiller. From atmospheric chillers to dramatic love stories to keep the frost of winter away, here is a summary of the reads that led me into the autumn season.
Love Stories
What better time to snuggle up with a cozy romantic read than on the tail-end of summer, when we have started to light the winter fires and dig out the musty sweaters that we shoved to the bottom of our wardrobes during the previous season? Although The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth may sound like a typical love story, the premise plays with the cliché love tropes- the fairground ride, the dramatic gesture- and recreates them for the LGBT community, a marginalised group that is often left out of the fun, fluffy Hallmark movies in return for tragic endings and an overbearing amount of teenage angst. This was a rom-com for the ages, and although imperfect, is very much needed within the romance genre.
Although, as a 20-something year old, it is hard to review Jacqueline Wilson’s new novel from the correct perspective, there was an aura of excitement around her latest release, the first LGBT story that she has published since publicly coming out earlier this year. Love, Frankie was everything that a fan who has grown up with Wilson’s books could have wanted, at once maintaining her classic style while being able to capture the modern experience of a young girl recognising her sexuality for the first time. Her love interest, Sally, although slightly problematic, is also delightfully complex, as all real love interests are, with a slippery and hard-to-pinpoint personality that contrasts wonderfully with Frankie’s own open, and, if you don’t mind the pun, frank characteristics.
The last book in this section would be better called an anti-love story. Although the novel focuses on love in all its shapes and forms (both romantic and platonic) its protagonist, being asexual and aromantic, gives a refreshing perspective on the genre. The novel slowly proves that friendship is more important than any other love, and that you do not need a romantic partner in order to have the candlelit dinners and grand gestures that you may have always dreamed about. Not only did the book break down barriers to discuss asexuality, but it also perfectly portrayed university living, particularly in the contrast between shy, introverted Georgia and party-girl Rooney, whose friendship is easily recognised on campuses across the country.
The Rural World
With Storm Alex settling in and preventing us from getting outside as much as normal, books can provide the perfect escape into the outdoors- whether you want to go mountain-hiking in Iceland, or are simply missing the languid summer weather that has just passed us by. The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn’s second novel, is a fractured narrative, and sometimes it is difficult to tell where the heart of the novel is. Although the individual sections- her mother’s death, her move to a rural farmhouse, and her trip to the hostile climates of Iceland- make for compelling reading on their own merit, put together in one novel, it can occasionally seem as if Winn simply ran out of content about each subject before rushing quickly onto the next. As a follow-up to The Salt Path, however, it is a mesmerising and evocative account of the natural world, even if the reading experience often feels a little uneven.
For an idyllic memoir that can take you far away from today’s hectic and often stressful world, Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee is the perfect antidote to the technological revolution and the struggles of the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking of a lost way of life, the novel recreates the memory of a time and a place that is now long gone- or at least changed past recognition. The whole narrative is seen under a hazy and generous dose of nostalgia that makes even the hardships of the time, such as sudden illnesses and harsh winters, seem admirable compared to the fast-paced lifestyles that many of us lead today.
If you are sceptical about the rural way of life, it is time to pick up Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. Not known for her delicate or hopeful narratives, this novel is a gut-punch of darkness that is perfect for the winter season. However, unlike her former books, such as My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this novel is often slow and sluggish, even as the protagonist’s mental state begins to slowly unwind. In many ways, this appears to be a lesser version of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, with much more violence against animals, and much less of the keep-you-up-all-night narrative that led the former to be so adulated.
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld first caught my attention having been the winner of the Internal Man Booker prize- and it was enough to put me off award-winners for life. Although I often try to balance both positives and negatives within my reviews, I still fail to come to terms with gross sexual violence, animal death, and bleak atmosphere of this novel, and believe that this novel is only for those that have a heart and mind of complete steel- and those who do not want to be haunted by disturbing images of a Dutch dairy farm for the rest of the month.
Setting Sail
However, the most memorable book of the month was the swashbuckling Fable by Adrienne Young, which provided the strong female-led sea-faring novel that many of us scour the shelves for after first watching Pirates of the Caribbean. This is an unputdownable ride that completely sweeps you away to the fantasy shores of its pages, spinning new threads and narratives into the pirate genre, while avoiding many of the tired cliches and traps that most of rum-soaked stories stand themselves up on. This novel will make you want to invest in copious barrels of rum, sleep in a hammock under the stars, and steal a lifetime’s worth of treasure from the nearest ship- if it doesn’t make you want to take the plunge into your own seaweed-smothered adventure.
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