"Arch-Conspirator" by Veronica Roth

An audio book.

The world's radioactive. The population's dwindling. Women have to bear children though half the time they die. A starship, trireme, might be used if the population gets too low. Dead people's icor is stored in the archives. This must be used for reproduction because then the genes can be edited. When Oedipus (a leader) and Jocesta (a gene scientist) were killed, Creon took their children (Antigone and 2 boys) in. His son Haymon is betrothed to Antigone. Her brother Polynices gives her an extractor (to get icor). Next day he dies. Nobody's allow to collect his icor, but Haymon creates a diversion so that Antigone can try. She's caught. She insists on a public trial. She and Creon debate. She has to leave on trireme. Haymon sleeps with her on her last night. He goes to a rebel asking for the flight to be stopped. The rebel says that Creon must die.

Other reviews

• Angela Gualtieri (The significant events from the original remain, but Roth twists them to the benefit of a modern audience. She then layers them with impactful themes like the consequences of choice, familial love, female autonomy, and power. The story is told through multiple perspectives in first-person, allowing not only a greater attachment to what’s happening, but a fuller understanding of the differing opinions and motives of each character.)
• righterofwords (Considering how much of Antigone’s story is influenced by her parentage, it makes sense to have genetics a major factor in this version, and I think it was done well. Some of the details about how reproduction works here seemed a little murky, but it didn’t affect my comprehension of the overall story. That said, I don’t know that Kreon’s stance makes much sense here. Without going into specifics, he believes that Antigone and her siblings have no soul, and therefore there is no use in saving their genes. I’m not sure this makes sense, since obviously these people have an understanding of genetics, so I would think that having viable DNA and eggs/sperm in such a dire world would still be valuable, souls aside. But maybe I missed something. Speaking of Kreon, I think it was interesting that Roth changed him from being Jocasta’s brother to being Oedipus’.)
• thebookdutchesses (To me it seemed like there wasn’t that much world building, which makes some sense in a novella but I’ve seen it done a lot better than here. ... I get that the story was retelling of Antigone but I didn’t really like the plot but I especially disliked the ending.)
• Bill Capossere (The thematic underpinning, meanwhile, is densely layered, raising issues of personal agency (particular with women), bodily autonomy, family obligation, use (and abuse) of power, religion, the balance between the rights of the individual and the needs of the state, and more. Here, more than with regard to plot, is where I personally would have liked to see more development, where the form’s length works somewhat at odds with the narrative.)

"Universality" by Natasha Brown

An audio book.

There's an article written by Hannah about an event followed by some chapters about the key characters, where some details differ with those of the article. Richard Spenser works in London in the finance sector. He's separated from wife Clare and child. When his father died he bought a Yorkshire farm, getting Jake to run it. During lockdown squatters moved in. Jake hit the leader Pegasus with a gold ingot and went off with it.

Lenny (female) is a right-wing influencer - actually Jake's mother. She and Richard were the only ones left in their apartment block during lockdown. They'd had sex.

Hannah is with Martin, Gwen with John. They have an evening meal together, discussing algorithms, class, race, etc. Hannah has interviewed Lenny. Martin intends to. The farm incident is being dramatised - Jake will be black and his mother will be Spenser's housekeeper. Richard has formally complained about how Hannah has portrayed him.

Years before, when Richard's father was widowered and his construction business was struggling, Richard helped at the expense of being with Clare. He didn't want Clare's rich parents to bail them out.

Lenny's 2nd book, "Woke Capitalism", wasn't a simple follow-up to her first.

Can't see too much in it. You can't believe all you read it the papers.

Other reviews

• Alex Clarke (a fabulous fable about the politics of storytelling)
• readingwritingandme (The book takes risks in its unconventionality. Thirty-five percent of the novel is the feature itself which we're launched into without context, and it offers the majority of the story as it bounces between various players in the dramatic incident. There are times where I felt this dragged, and I wondered what the point would be in the wider novel. It turns out that this feature is largely the novel. What disappointed me, somewhat, was that the central focus of the feature, the anarchist group that was turning cult-like and the interpersonal problems that led to the assault, were all put entirely to the wayside when the book shifted course. Which, it does make sense for the project. The book is really a critique of the media ecosystem as a whole more than anything. And, in that way, Brown makes her artificial device almost too compelling because I found myself wanting to go deeper on the content of the piece itself rather than look at the machinations around it. This perfectly makes the point Brown is going for, but I feel like it's worth saying on the plane of novels being entertainment and having the dimension of reader experience that there is something of a letdown in that choice. The prose sections after the feature also felt technically weaker.)
• ontheprize (Crucially, the novel reveals that far from the purely political and contemporarily ‘symbolic’ crime that Hannah sets up in the article, there are far more personal motivations at play behind the scenes. ... It’s a book that his received fulsome praise from many quarters, with many a five star review and plaudits from respected sources and prizes aplenty. I have to confess that my immediate reaction to all of this was utter bemusement. ... The first third ... is lumberingly written, and didn’t grab my attention at all. Of course, this is soon revealed to have been something like “the point” ... My primary criticism is that the rest of the book, even as its structural ‘cleverness’ becomes apparent, lacks redeeming features ... Beyond that, what else is there? The characters are caricatures in service of the cleverness. It’s implied that the later sections of the book reveal hidden depths beyond the superficiality of the article, but do they really? ... I get the point (and did while reading) that Brown is deconstructing the simplistic narratives we are fed in the modern, highly polarised ‘Culture Wars’ landscape, and massively agree that this is a worthwhile endeavour. But isn’t it preaching to the converted? Don’t most readers of this kind of literary fiction understand inherently the false dichotomies being established and understand that the characters espousing them are often deeply compromised individuals with ties to the things they criticise and that their motivations aren’t exactly honourable? No?)

"The life she wants" by J.M. Hewitt

An audio book

Paula (mid-thirties) is married to increasingly rich Tommy. They have a 5 bedroom home. She wants a child. He's stalling. Her best friend Julie tells her to hurry up. When Tommy surprises Paula with an Arctic cruise he hints that he's ready for fatherhood.

Anna has overheard Paula's conversation with Julie. She is William's live-in carer. One day he brings home $18k in cash and says his son will arrive in a day or so from Spain. She pushes him downstairs and prepares a departure. She spends £6k to get the cabin next to Paula and Tommy. She tries and fails to kill Paula. She kills a crew member who suspects her.

We learn about a girl whose single mother bringing clients home. The girl tried locking her in her room until she kicked the habit but her supplier saved her. She won a scholarship to study at Edinburgh by swindling the only other candidate - Rebecca, a foster child. She was called back by the pusher when her mother died. She killed the pusher.

When Paula phones Julie, updating her on events, Julie tells Paula to be suspicious of Anna, who's gaslighting her and making her doubt Tommy. An indistinct photo of Anna appears online as a suspected murderer of William. The crew suspect her. On a daytrip Anna tells Paula about her murders then pushes she under the ice of a lake, throws away various incriminating things she's stolen, and returns to the ship. Paula escapes, collects the items, and returns to the ship to confront and kill Anna.

We learn - I think - that Paula is Rebecca

I'd assumed than the girl whose past we learn about was Anna but I was confused at the end - were it not an audio book I'd have turned back to work things out. The section when Paula escapes from under the ice (an unlikely event, giving the coldness of the water) and collects items is detailed without being interesting. The phrase "she smiled to herself" is used several times even when she's alone.

Other reviews

• tropicalgirlreadsbooks (the plot is too direct, not many twists and turns and is too predictable to me. ... The book was too slow and overall bland to me. The ending was OK to me.)
• Goodreads (an evaluation of 4.03 after 4,685 ratings. I'm surprised by both figures.)

"One of Us" by Elizabeth Day

An audio book.

Martin (his first-person PoV) is a History of Art lecturer at the University of South Anglia, Cambridge. Because he used "Orientalism" in a lecture, and has she/they issues, he has to go to a therapist, Joanne. He lives in a cottage. His best friend at school, Ben, went to Cambridge University with him. Ben was driving in an accident when someone was killed. Martin took the blame in exchange for money. Ben became a cabinet minister, married to Serena. He's stopped paying Martin money. Martin's wife Lucy has left him. She hit Ben's wife with a champagne bottle and spent a while in rehab.

Serena (her third-person PoV) is Ben's wife.She's a Lady. They have 4 children. Both have affairs. She thinks Martin is creepy and gay.

Richard was a politician expected to succeed Ben until he was caught watching porn. His wife Hannah left him. They're childless.

Fliss, Ben's sister, died. She talks from beyond the grave.

Cosina (her third-person PoV), Ben and Serena's oldest child, is involved with protest action when a fellow protester, River, was injured. Ben is Tory energy minister.

Martin's invited to Fliss's funeral. He doesn't know why, or how Fliss died. Nor does he know who invited him. He hopes it was Ben. Serena welcomes him, gossiping about the various guests. She says that Fliss drowned, drunk in Bali. He meets Derek, Fliss's boyfriend in Bali. He says that she wasn't doing drugs.

Cosina visits River in hospital. She loves him. He tells her that he knows who she is, and has info about Fliss. Later it's revealed that he's an undercover police officer. Cosina tells Martin about it all. Martin passes the info to Richard.

In the third person we hear about Fliss's life. When she was 50 she was squatting, got drunk, and called Jarvis for help. He took her home and raped her. She told Ben and the police but wasn't believed. She went to Bali and started a new life. On her 54th birthday she lapsed and drank. A voice told her to kill herself so, feeling worthless, she did.

Serena has sex with Jarvis, a rich uncouth friend of Ben. When the PM resigns, Ben announces his candidature (without telling Serena first). Richard, his reputation restored by appearing on a reality show, is running his campaign. Jarvis is funding it. To widen his appeal, Ben tells the Guardian newspaper that Martin, his oldest friend, is gay. Martin had been keeping that secret.

Ben and Serena get caught up in an eco-protest at the British Museum that involves Cosina. Serena didn't know about Cosina's involvement. Ben did. Cosina rushes away to Cambridge on a whim. When she gets there she realises that subconsciously she wants to meet Martin. She realises that all the people she knows are fakes. He, world-weary, distrustful of love since his mother died in his 30s, tells her that he's passed on her info to Richard. Meanwhile, Serena dashes away to an Austrian wellbeing clinic, fed up with not being told things. After 3 days, Cosina starts replying to her txts. Ben tracks her down to apologise in person. She tells him about Jarvis.

On a Breakfast TV interview, Richard spills the beans about Ben and Jarvis, announcing his own leadership bid. Casina escapes reporters by going to Bali, staying with Derek.

Ben, unaware of Martin's involvement in his downfall, wants Martin to be Cosina's godfather. Martin finds a partner. Richard becomes prime-minister, Martin being his consultant on gay matters. Ben goes to prison. The book ends with Martin seeing Jarvis in a sauna.

Other reviews

• Lara Fiegel (The Party was so plot-driven and backstory-laden that it lacked the fine-grained intimacy of her earlier works. One of Us is a sequel to The Party, but it’s a much stronger, more distinctive novel, better read as a standalone work. Here she has returned to the intimate family dynamics at which she excels, combined with a brilliantly propulsive, almost whodunnit-ish plot and an astute analysis of power. ... The novel is wilfully big-boned, mixing levity and real substance, and risking unwieldiness as it does so. The social satire can feel like a series of memes – which says as much about the banality of our moment as about Day’s writing.)
• Aoife Burke (Narratively, it doesn’t always work. It goes by the everyone-is-the-main-character-in-their-own-story principle, so the tone ends up very uneven. ... The cast of characters lacks originality)
• goodreads

"Open Road (book 2)" by Kevin St. John Robinson (ed) (Open Road, 1997)

Prose and poetry by people with (or help people with) drug/alcohol problems. In the introduction the editor writes -

• "it will be readily apparent that the work is often rather simple in expession. Nevertheless, it sometimes achieves a real power by simple and direct approach, a touch of humour"
• "there are parallels between some of this work and that of some of our war poets ... It is sometimes said that war is a metaphor for the human condition in that man is a creature at war with himself. Substance abuse may provide a better metaphor"
• "Writing, of course, is unlikely by itself to cure an addition, but it can and does provide a degree of self esteem ... and show that it is worth reaching out to life and people"

Among the writers are those who have appeared in Poetry Wales, Rialto, etc, who've played the male lead on the West End, or have represented Great Britain in seven World Championships ... and two Ironman competitions.

In general I prefer the prose to the poetry - it's more concise. It's interesting to see how the same points are expressed by writers who have had very different exposure to literature. When Kathy Warner writes "I cannot reach out/ For I am unable to see where I am reaching" she expresses a common sentiment, expressed also by her in "The kite". Roy Taylor's style in "Zumotikos" is different - "And enigmatic epilepsy/ Kills the vespertines'/ Shape-searching all over the latrine's/ Lino and sanctuary carpet/ Where thy kingdom cums."

I liked "Lines for T.S.Eliot" and "The thin blue line" by Kevin St John Robinson.

"Paradiso" by Francesco Scanacapra

An audio book.

Lombardy. "Paradiso" is the (nick)name for the residence of the first-person protagonist, Graziella. When her cousin is killed in the village by the Nazis (she sees and smells his bleeding body on the table), his mother poisons 12 Nazi soldiers. The children of the village are quickly sent away to a nunnery. There Graziella learns to read and write, and learns about right and wrong. She prays, and sometimes her wishes come true. Her father was crippled in an accident at work. He's given a job by a charity tidying a graveyard, but he struggles. When she returns, she's not the only one trying to find a way to live. People return wounded in various ways. Salvatori from Naples shows them how to sun-dry tomatoes. A friend's father starts a cooperative. A teacher punishes her even though she's innocent and is sacked.

She meets rich Francesco, 2 years older than her. They have their own church. His father's an atheist. 2 women chase Salvatori. A church-fund event fails. There's a school trip to Cremona. Her father dies. At her new school she meets Francesco, who's no longer rich. His father's dead. She's 13, he's 15. He helps her with schoolwork. They fall in love.

More than once a construction like "brown in colour" is used. A few interesting anecdotal details. Not enough of a story or ending.

Other reviews

• tizisbookreview

"Heart the Lover" by Lily King

An audio book.

Jordan is a female student - she's started as a golf scholar and she's now doing Creative Writing. Her brother's gay. Carson (female) is her flatmate. Her ex-flatmate had been murdered.

She goes out with Sam, a sex-abstainer until he relents. They soon break up. She extends her degree by a year, not least because she'll then share time with Yash, Sam's flatmate. They start sleeping together. Yash's father is against it. Jordan goes to work in Paris for a while. Yash joins her for a few weeks then returns home.

He visits her several years later. He's single, a lawyer. She's married with 2 boys - 5 and 7. She's published books that he's read. She had his child, a daughter, who she gave away an hour after birth. Does he know this? No, though Silas does. Why did he visit?

5 years later, her eldest son Jack needs a dangerous brain operation. She's not written a book in 5 years. Josh is terminally ill. She flies to him. Sam is at his bedside. Jash tells her he'd been in remission when he visited her. She tells him that he has a 27 y.o. daughter somewhere. Why did he run off? He says he panicked, that they'd been too poor to marry. Jack's suddenly offered an op. She delays her trip to him because of Jash. On the way to the airport she hears that Jash has died.

I didn't see much in it. I felt manipulated by student love and disappointment, an unplanned pregancy, an ex-lover's terminal illness, a son's critical illness, deathbed regrets, etc.

Other reviews

• Rebecca Wait (The university experience is a risky business in fiction. Generally, the feelings are intense, but the stakes are low; it’s all very formative for the individual character, but it can feel a bit trivial to anyone else.)
• readingwritingandme (The book suffers on a number of levels. There's a general lack of deftness that is incredibly surprising from King. The book feels clunky in the way it draws its characters and lays out the plot. There's nothing to grasp onto in these people, no subtle nuance. ... It is all incredibly surface. From the relationships to the layout of the story, there's a thinness here that doesn't work in the moment or upon reflection. ... Yash's terminal illness is less a plot point than a device to try to save a floundering, confused storyline.)