Tag: Dystopian

The Starving Bride – book review

The Starving Bride, by Catherine Chidgey

The brilliant Catherine Chidgey has gone over all gothic again in her recurring theme of slightly futuristic, weird British seaside amusement parks. I’m not sure she’s doing the places any favours, and for that I salute her. Horrible institutions, tacky and sad, harking back to a bygone age where people were fed pathetic entertainment and nasty hot dogs without irony. The theme of this one is “A Simpler Time” which sounds a bit Trumpian. Make these miserable little seaside towns great again. I’m a bit concerned that Chidgey’s recent books, from Axeman, Pet, Book of Guilt and now The Starving Bride, all focus on the manipulation of vulnerable people. Please, Catherine, enough psychological darkness. Would you please write us a beautiful, classical LOVE STORY? You know – a passionate couple, torn asunder by forces outside their control but (will they? won’t they?) do eventually get their happy ever after. Surprise us. It’d be brilliant.

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Prophet Song – book review

Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch

When I described the plot of this book to my hubby – about a country turned to anarchy, the tyranny of a government and brutality of the rebels –he said it could never happen in modern Ireland. This surprised me, as we had lived in London during the troubles, had felt the bombings personally. It wasn’t so long ago. And Hitler’s rise to power less than a century ago illustrates how a modern country can turn on itself in a heartbeat of time. Why assume sectarian violence has gone away? And yet Ireland, today, seems such a peaceful place. Paul Lynch’s book imagines how, still, it could turn. Horribly, given the increasingly polarised state of the world, I found his scenario felt entirely possible.

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