Reviews

Member reviews

• Quiet reviewed by @annotatedannie

  6/ 106 out of 10

  Four things done well, three done badly. It gets a six.

  Quiet · @annotatedannie · 7 Apr 2026

• The Road reviewed by @an_ordinary_tuesday

  9/ 109 out of 10

  Ash, ash, ash, and the boy.

  The Road · @an_ordinary_tuesday · 6 Apr 2026

• Kindred reviewed by @mx_marginalia

  9/ 109 out of 10

  Time travel as a delivery system, not a puzzle box. The nine is for the last stretch, which I read standing up in the kitchen.

  Kindred · @mx_marginalia · 6 Apr 2026

• Notes from a Small Island reviewed by @quietcarriage

  7/ 107 out of 10

  Put-downable in the kind way — ideal for a journey with three changes. Funnier about Britain than interesting about it, mind.

  Notes from a Small Island · @quietcarriage · 5 Apr 2026

• The Bear and the Nightingale reviewed by @tinyapartmentbigtbr

  8/ 108 out of 10

  The inscription inside says: "To Dad, who won't read this. Love E." He didn't. Ninety pence.

  The Bear and the Nightingale · @tinyapartmentbigtbr · 4 Apr 2026

  55 readers agree with this review

• My Sister, the Serial Killer reviewed by @verity_lane

  8/ 108 out of 10

  Short, sharp, and the title has already told you more than I'm going to. Read it in one go on the 18:40 out of Euston; missed my stop by two stations.

  My Sister, the Serial Killer · @verity_lane · 4 Apr 2026

• The Overstory reviewed by @saltmarsh

  8/ 108 out of 10

  The trees are better than the people in it. He knows it, I think. The chestnut at the beginning is worth all the rest.

  The Overstory · @saltmarsh · 4 Apr 2026

• Mort reviewed by @rereader

  9/ 109 out of 10

  Fifth. Nine again, same as 2018.

  Mort · @rereader · 3 Apr 2026

• The Left Hand of Darkness reviewed by @mx_marginalia

  8/ 108 out of 10

  The pronoun conversation has eaten this book alive. Underneath it: two people crossing ice while lying to each other about why they can't be honest — the gender argument is downstream of that.

  The Left Hand of Darkness · @mx_marginalia · 2 Apr 2026

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reviewed by @quietcarriage

  8/ 108 out of 10

  Perfect commute book because it doesn't mind being interrupted — you can lose a page at Maidenhead and pick it up again without any real loss. I laughed out loud twice, which on a Tuesday morning carriage counts as a public disturbance.

  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy · @quietcarriage · 1 Apr 2026

• Braiding Sweetgrass reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  7/ 107 out of 10

  Read over about a year, forty pages at a time, which is the correct dose. Seven. The pecan chapter is the one.

  Braiding Sweetgrass · @dnf_diaries · 1 Apr 2026

• The Corrections reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  5/ 105 out of 10

  DNF at p.90, 27 October. Nobody in it likes anybody, and the book appears to want credit for having noticed. Read instead: Stoner, twice in one fortnight, which is not at all like me.

  The Corrections · @dnf_diaries · 1 Apr 2026

• The Fellowship of the Ring reviewed by @rereader

  10/ 1010 out of 10

  Ninth. I skip the Barrow-downs now.

  The Fellowship of the Ring · @rereader · 31 Mar 2026

• Silent Spring reviewed by @ivor_stack

  9/ 109 out of 10

  The opening fable I could have done without. Everything after it is a case built the way one builds a case: evidence first, conclusion last, nothing asserted that hasn't been paid for. Sixty years on it still stands up. Nine.

  Silent Spring · @ivor_stack · 31 Mar 2026

• Ancillary Justice reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  the pronoun thing isn't the interesting part. the distributed pov is.

  Ancillary Justice · @kepler22b · 30 Mar 2026

• The Stranger reviewed by @an_ordinary_tuesday

  8/ 108 out of 10

  Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I have not stopped turning that opening over since March; the rest never quite catches up to it, but what an opening.

  The Stranger · @an_ordinary_tuesday · 30 Mar 2026

• Nineteen Eighty-four reviewed by @theodore_p

  10/ 1010 out of 10

  Nobody reads the appendix, which is written in the past tense by somebody living after Ingsoc has fallen, and that changes the novel's last line.

  Nineteen Eighty-four · @theodore_p · 27 Mar 2026

• The Road reviewed by @grimdarkgareth

  9/ 109 out of 10

  Nine. Bleak all the way down — and the bunker chapter is the cruellest bit because it's nice.

  The Road · @grimdarkgareth · 27 Mar 2026

• The Once and Future King reviewed by @thebigsleepy

  8/ 108 out of 10

  The first part, with the boy and the animals, is lovely and I would happily have stayed there. It gets sadder than I was expecting. My wife found me a hardback of it in a shop in Ludlow, which helped.

  The Once and Future King · @thebigsleepy · 26 Mar 2026

• Gideon the Ninth reviewed by @hollowknightfan99

  8/ 108 out of 10

  lesbian necromancers in space, and it took me a hundred pages to stop being annoyed by the jokes

  Gideon the Ninth · @hollowknightfan99 · 26 Mar 2026

• Men Explain Things to Me reviewed by @mx_marginalia

  6/ 106 out of 10

  Has anyone reread the title essay lately? It's a party anecdote with a thesis stapled on. The Woolf piece and the one about disappearance are the actual book, and nobody quotes those, which tells you how we read collections.

  Men Explain Things to Me · @mx_marginalia · 25 Mar 2026

• Guns Germs and Steel reviewed by @ivor_stack

  5/ 105 out of 10

  A single explanation applied to everything it meets. When one member is carrying every load in the structure you inspect that member very closely indeed, and his doesn't survive the inspection. Five. I finished it, which may say more about me.

  Guns Germs and Steel · @ivor_stack · 24 Mar 2026

• One Hundred Years of Solitude reviewed by @mossandink

  9/ 109 out of 10

  I kept a list of the Aurelianos in the back and lost it twice. Yellow butterflies, insomnia, ice; I'd take the ice chapter over most novels I read this year. Read it right through the drought, which probably helped, or possibly ruined it.

  One Hundred Years of Solitude · @mossandink · 22 Mar 2026

• Sapiens reviewed by @bookclubdropout

  5/ 105 out of 10

  Nobody finished it. Deborah lied.

  Sapiens · @bookclubdropout · 21 Mar 2026