Online Book Reviews

Book Reviews 

Online and free to read

Billy Liar - Book Review

Billy Liar was published in 1959 and is set in 1950s Yorkshire. Much has changed in the fifty years or so since then, but the human condition remains the same. Picture: Billy Liar

I Am Legend - Book Review

Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend was first brought to the movie screen in the 1964 Vincent Price film The Last Man on Earth, then again with the 1971 Charlton Heston version The Omega Man. Now it's being introduced to a new generation via the 200...

The Beach - Book Review

When most people think of The Beach they probably remember the 2000 movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. Well, I've still never seen the movie - this is a review of  the original Alex Garland novel.   Image: The Beach Region 1 DVD

Killing Me Softly - Book Review

If I'd picked this book up without knowing the author, I'd probably have binned it after about fifty pages. However I've read and enjoyed Nicci French before and know that "she" (actually "they") can produce compulsive stories. So...

I Am The Cheese - Book Review

I Am The Cheese is often categorised as a book for young people. It deserves a wider audience than that. Yes, the protagonist is a teenager and yes, the book is written in fairly straightforward English, but what's wrong with that? The main point of...

More Book Reviews 

The Straw Men - Book Review

"Michael Marshall" is in fact "Michael Marshall Smith", author of the brilliant Only Forward as well as several other works of speculative fiction. In a cunning plan worthy of Iain (M) Banks he has decided on the pseudonym Michae...

Playing The Moldovans At Tennis

My first reaction to the mere existence of this book by British comedian Tony Hawks was one of extreme scepticism - and not merely because of my total lack of interest in football, tennis or almost any other sport. Round Ireland With A Fridge was a...

Dora's Room - Book Review

 Fern Mary Miller is an orphan. She lives in a small house in Bristol with Dring, her nursemaid since she was a child, and Paula, her American friend and lodger. She is quiet, unadventurous and lives a safe, predictable life. To be frank she is...

Piggies

Piggies is a book for "young adults" (that dreadful phrase always reminds me of The Young Ones...). Whilst it is Gifford's first novel for this age range, he has previously written dark fiction for adults under a different name. It shows. P...

The Tooth Fairy - Book Review

Despite critical acclaim, award-winning author Graham Joyce has never received the recognition he deserves. Perhaps this is because his books are difficult to categorise; they sit somewhere in between the literary mainstream and the less fashionable...

More Book Reviews 

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination appears to be Helen Fielding's attempt to escape from the repressive (albeit profitable) genre of Bridget Jones and associated chick fic. Instead she has moved up to the more mature genre of thriller - spe...

The Puppet Show - Book Review

One of my favourite films is The Haunting; the original 1963 version, not the risible remake. Why? Because it's a horror film where until the very end nothing happens. The result is far more frightening than any number of dead bodies. The Puppet Sho...

The Mother Tongue - Book Review

The Mother Tongue should be the perfect book for me. I'm a great fan of Bryson's humour writing and he's an American who understands the British psyche - hence the hilarity of Small Island. Add to that the fact that I'm the sort of sad geek who loves...

Pixel Juice - Book Review

I assume that you've read Jeff Noon's first novel, Vurt? You haven't? Then go and buy it tomorrow. No, make that today. Vurt is a great book. It's hard work and takes a lot of getting in to but is worth the effort. Noon's following novels expand on...

The Bridge - Book Review

The Bridge is based on an intriguing concept: extra-terrestrial contact gone wrong. The story starts with an alien race deciding to try and contact other planets. They send out a huge number of automated "pods" all designed to communicate...

More Book Reviews 

The Eyre Affair - Book Review

Welcome to Britain in 1985. Except that this is a slightly different version of Britain. In this 1985 the Crimean War is still underway; genetically re-engineered dodos are popular pets; and the Government is facing public riots over a proposed incre...