‘Deeplight’ is set in a world of gods. A familiar theme, except for one marked difference: all the gods are dead. However, if you are brave enough to risk the dangerous deep and salvage their remains, dead gods can be just as useful as live ones. Possibly more so. Hark is not typically one of the brave ones, but he is unerringly loyal. It is this loyalty that leads to his possession the most powerful and dangerous relic that has ever been salvaged from the deep: the heart of a god. The question of what to do with such a relic is a wild rollercoaster on which Hark is first dragged along for the ride, before he finally makes his own decision and jumps into the driver’s seat.
‘Bellevue’ features two storylines running side by side, exploring the stories that take place at Bellevue across two different time periods. The 19th century Bellevue takes the form of a corrupt mental asylum where Ellen has been incarcerated by her sister Mary’s manipulations. In the 21st century Claire is living in the newly renovated Bellevue apartments, but could they be haunted by the terrible things that happened there in the past? At first this does seem to be the case, but the latter part of the book takes on a darker tone in which more sinister insinuations arise. This darker tone is achieved with effective pacing throughout the novel, which causes the tension and horror levels to gradually mount up until they reach a deafening crescendo, the height of which I found too gruesome for my preference.
Marie Brennan’s ‘Driftwood’ is set during an unofficial memorial service for the elusive character ‘Last’, in which a wide assortment of people step forward to tell their stories of him. No one knows if Last is really dead or if it’s all rumour, but the memorial seems to be a good way for people to honour their memories of him and to thank him for the differences he has made to their lives. I’ll admit I was unsure about this book when I first started reading, but it drew me in bit by bit and I was enthralled by the time I finished reading.
Alex Pheby’s ‘Mordew’ follows the life of Nathan Treeves as he comes into his magical inheritance. He learns that there is much he doesn’t know about his parent’s and the parts they played in making Mordew the city it is today. His journey is inspired mostly by circumstance, rather than by any real decisions on his part, and he is manipulated by multiple characters along the way for their own means. These means are often mysterious or unclear and they don’t tend to end positively for poor Nathan.
Threading the Labyrinth is a multi-generational, centuries-spanning tale of intrigue and beauty. The story starts in 2010 with Toni, a frazzled American gallery owner who has inherited a manor house in the sprawling British countryside. However, it isn’t the house that takes the show, but the garden; specifically a fairy-tale walled garden that invites and intoxicates all who enter. The story then delves into the past of the garden and the ghosts that it holds, jumping backwards and forwards between five different centuries with a menagerie of characters through the ages.
Escape to the Bookshelf 