![]() They are the result of global warming, of toxic-waste disposal. People argue amongst themselves, message links to articles back and forth. The provenance of the jellyfish remains a mystery. Certainly not what you’d expect, coming up for a long weekend, is it, Cathy?’ – ‘Actually, Tim, I think you’ll find a group of jellyfish is called a “smack”.’ One photograph makes it into the local paper, another fills five minutes on a regional morning show: ‘And in local news, a shoal of jellyfish has been causing consternation for tourists at one of the more popular pleasure beaches. ![]() Bringing their phones down to the beach, they snap pictures, send them into nature shows. People claim they are poisonous – Sea Nettles, Lion’s Mane, Portuguese Man of War. A saturation, leeching down into the earth. Drowned in air, they break apart and bleed their interiors. ![]() They are translucent, almost spectral, as though the sea has exorcised its ghosts. The ocean empties, a thousand dead and dying invertebrates, jungled tentacles and fine, fragile membranes blanketing the shore two miles in each direction. ![]() The jellyfish come with the morning – a great beaching, bodies black on sand. The following text is an extract from the story “Smack”, taken from Julia Armfield’s debut collection Salt Slow, published by Picador, which was nominated for the 2019 Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() No one expected the candidates might not make it out with their lives. The Rebels of Gold ( 2017) Wish Quartet (with Lynn Larsh) 1. She wasn’t ready for what it would cost her. ![]() As she comes into the spotlight, so too do the skeletons of a past she hadn’t even realized was haunting her.Įira went into the trials ready for a fight. Princess Natasia is the eldest child of the Emperor Andreth, ruler of the Four Realms. She’s invited to the royal court with the “Prince of the Tower,” discovers her rare talent for forbidden magic, and at midnight, Eira meets with a handsome elfin ambassador.īut, Eira soon learns, no reward is without risk. The fate of an empire lies in the hands of one untested princess. Pitted against the best sorcerers in the Empire, Eira fights to be one of four champions. She’s the most unwanted apprentice in the Tower of Sorcerers until the day she decides to step out and compete for a spot in the Tournament of Five Kingdoms. Eighteen-year-old Waterrunner Eira Landan lives her life in the shadows - the shadow of her older brother, of her magic’s whispers, and of the person she accidentally killed. A Deal with the Elf King is a complete, stand-alone novel, inspired by the tales of Hades and Persephone, as well as Beauty and the Beast, with a happily. ![]() ![]() ![]() \"A full-speed joy of a book funny, quick-footed, and wildly, magically inventive\" - Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers ![]() This is a special book\" - David Solomons, author of My Brother is a Superhero Nevermoor rewrites the genre of the Chosen Child novel. \"Endlessly inventive, with a fresh delight on every page. \"An extraordinary story full of magics great and small\" - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Girl of Ink and Stars quite simply one of the best children's books I've read in years\" - Robin Stevens, author of Murder Most Unladylike \"Exciting, mysterious, marvellous and magical. Featuring a 'hidden' illustration beneath the stunning cover, both sprinkled with gold, this is the perfect gift for all adventurous young readers. WINNER OF RED MAGAZINE'S BIG BOOK 'BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK (7-12)' AWARDĪn international bestselling series - enter the Wundrous world of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor. ![]() WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE 2018 YOUNGER FICTION CATEGORY ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. Though it doesn’t exactly topple stereotypes or delve deep into questions of gender identity, Negley’s debut is nonetheless sincere. The figures have varying skin tones, and while in some contexts “guys” is not a gender-specific term, everyone here reads as male, which is probably OK and no doubt intended. The front endpapers show the boy in all of these guises, while the back endpapers show him in each role with his dad. In the end, it is all about the father and son, curled up together on the bed, reading together. Everyone has feelings, says the text-well, almost everyone, as the robot clipping and smashing flowers with a grim expression on its metal face indicates. These tough guys are shown at emotional and sometimes scary moments: the astronaut floating in space holding a photograph of his wife and child the superhero eating his lunch alone atop a building the tattooed biker weeping over a dead squirrel in the road. There are a lucha libre wrestler, two ninjas, a knight, a cowboy, and more stereotypically manly men. These tough guys are rendered in simple lines and shapes and colored in black and white, red, blue, and yellow, but they represent a broad range of virility. ![]() ![]() ![]() Im happy to praise it, but Im scared to recommend it. The most upsetting horror novel Ive read in years. ![]() If that title doesnt clue you in, this book is dark and mean and ugly and. ![]() Together, Alice and Ila must face the horrors that happened there, must pull themselves apart from the inside out, put their differences aside, and try to rescue Hannah, whom the House has chosen to make its own.Ĭutting, disruptive, and darkly funny, Tell Me I’m Worthless is a vital work of trans fiction that examines the devastating effects of trauma and how fascism makes us destroy ourselves and each other. Tell Me Im Worthless by Alison Rumfitt is a five star book. Memories of that night torment Alice, but when Ila asks her to return to the House, to go past the KEEP OUT sign and over the sick earth where teenagers dare each other to venture, Alice knows she must go. She lives a haunted existence, selling videos of herself for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep. Published by Cipher Press, Tell Me Im Worthless is both a haunted house novel, in the vein of Shirley Jackson, and a political allegory about the state of m. Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah. Tell Me Im Worthless Alison Rumfitt No preview available - 2023. A dark, unflinching haunted house story that confronts both supernatural and real-world horrors through the lens of the modern-day trans experience ![]() ![]() ![]() Miller learns-eventually-that if he wants to make Sunshine “Sunny” Waters fall for him, he's going to have to do a whole lot more than show her his stick skills in the bedroom. Beyond that minor detail, Miller doesn’t know the first thing about relationships or the time and effort they require. Except, unlike team captain and all-around nice guy Alex Waters-who happens to date his stepsister, Miller’s media reputation as a manwhore is well earned. Miller thinks he’s found that woman in his teammate’s sister. A real, non-bunny girlfriend to take on dates, and not jump into bed with after five seconds of conversation. After five years in the NHL, deflecting goals on the ice and scoring them with puck bunnies, Miller has decided he’s ready for a girlfriend. ![]() ![]() Miller “Buck” Butterson has been banging his way through life ever since a puck to the face fixed his messed up front teeth. Genres: Romance, Romantic Comedy, Sports Romance ![]() ![]() This is Leslie’s debut novel, or novela perhaps. I’m currently studying for my PhD in English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. My novel Bodies of Water, hailed a “feminist ghost story” was published by Salt Publishing and has just been translated into French. ![]() James and Shirley Jackson and was nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy Award. My debut short story collection Skein and Bone garnered comparisons to M.R. I won the Lightship First Chapter Prize in 2013 and was a finalist for the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award in the category of novelette. I’m a Hawthornden Fellow and was recently awarded a place at the Saari Institute in Finland, where I was researching Nordic myth and folklore. My short stories have appeared in a range of speculative publications, including Black Static, Interzone and Shadows and Tall Trees and have been reprinted in a range of “Year’s Best” anthologies. I like stories that are driven by setting and those that make connections to other texts, to mythology, folklore and art. I enjoy reading and writing fiction that focuses on psychological issues and perspectives, that blurs boundaries or takes place within liminal or marginal spaces. Although I always knew that I wanted to write fiction, it was only recently that I began in earnest. ![]() I taught English A Level for a number of years and I still write academic articles for a range of literary publications. I came to books early and enjoyed them so much that I’ve spent the best part of my life studying them. ![]() ![]() ![]() The cloning concepts are very well explained and fleshed out, Lafferty going so far as to write and implement what’s referred to as the Codicils the international laws that govern the existence of clones for the whole story. I can say that in Six Wakes this is done expertly. Six Wakes Six Wakes audiobook (Unabridged) By Mur Lafferty Listen to a Sample Format audiobook Edition Unabridged ISBN 9780316389686 Author Mur Lafferty Narrator Mur Lafferty Publisher Hachette Audio Release 31 January 2017 Subjects Fiction Science Fiction Thriller Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive. ![]() I am also a big sci-fi fan and keeping the concepts scientifically accurate is pretty important to me, as well as the majority of folks who like to read science fiction novels. When those flashbacks all come together and you understand who these people really are, you start to get a sense of what could have happened in the beginning – but you may never guess the real ending. It’s always better to be left guessing until the end rather than to find out the full story 3/4 of the way into the book and then read how it all happens and why, right? Mur Lafferty crafted Six Wakes perfectly, with the flashbacks of each character stitched in at exactly the right moments. ![]() This is something I definitely enjoyed and I believe readers everywhere will enjoy as well. Mur Lafferty keeps you wondering, changing opinions and slowly unraveling the complicated web of how all of the pieces fit together, all the way until the end. ![]() You jump straight into the action in Six Wakes. This nerve-tingling murder mystery in space has almost everything right, at least for me. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() One day, the soldiers asked for volunteers to play music and Arn raised his hand. He was taken from his family and put into a children's labor camp, forced to work in the rice paddies. Arn's early life in rural Cambodia "was filled with the sweet sounds of music and laughter." But in 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, finally reaching Arn's village. The Stone Goddess is a powerful young adult novel that develops a similar story further, following a young girl, Nakri, as she and her brother and sister end up in a labor camp.Īges 10 - 14 A Song for Cambodia is the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond's survival of the Khmer Rough work camps. A Song for Cambodia is a picture book that introduces the story of Cambodia and what happened to ordinary families when the Khmer Rouge soldiers took over. ![]() I read several books set in SE Asia, but the two that really stuck with me were historical fiction set during the terror of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, trying to see how two children survived this horror. I am participating in One Shot World Tour, a challenge to reviewers to read books set in South East Asia, and really enjoyed the challenge. ![]() Whether it's through historical fiction or realistic fiction, stories have transported me to another place. I have always loved being able to travel to other parts of the world through my reading. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() My knowledge of the period is extremely limited. Or who said what, and when, where and why did they say it? And who saw what, where, when, how and why? I am instead interested in the historical development that led to the affirmation that he is God. I do not take a stand on the theological question of Jesus’s divine status. Not much to work with here as far as physical evidence goes, but Ehrman does apply his considerable skill to analyzing what documentation we have, tracing provenance, to the extent possible, applying what we know of the period(s), and lasering in on crucial questions.Įhrman makes it very clear that he is not about trying to turn anyone away from a particular set of beliefs. One might consider Ehrman’s task a very challenging episode of Cold Case Files, or maybe fodder for a new version of a favorite show (as if there are not enough already) CSI Antiquity. ![]() Was it there from the beginning? How did it arise? What does it even mean? Was he considered divine by believers before conception, at conception, at baptism by John, when he died on the cross, when he rose from the dead, when he headed upstairs to the executive offices? And the answer? Yes.Īs with many mysteries there is a paucity of physical evidence. Ehrman takes on the subject of how, in history, the notion of Jesus as god developed. And it came to pass that I read and ye shall learn of a pretty amazing book. ![]() |