The Vivisectors

 by Missouri Williams

Where to begin. This novel was a real struggle to get started with and I only picked up the flow of it from half way through and even then I was struggling.

It is set in an unnamed crumbling city of lofty spires and the university. The city is being overrun by vegetation and the gardeners-who are a powerful faction in the running of the city-are in dispute with the academics.

In the middle of this we find Agathe who is not speaking to her father and whose mother has been seriously injured in a suicide attempt. Having abandoned her own studies she is living with her uncle and working for an academic from another city.

The university is in uproar over a student who has come into conflict with a professor called Jacob and this throws Agathe and the student together in very weird circumstances.

The book has some beautifully written snippets but as a book it left me cold. Not for me 4/10

All Them Dogs

 by Djamel White

Think the Sopranos set in present day Dublin and you just about have the plot for this novel! The main character is even called Tony! The pace is relentless and the outpouring of anger is written with real intensity. 

Surprised to see it on the Booker longlist and it wouldn't make my shortlist, but stranger things have happened. 6/10

The End of Everything

 by M. John Harrison

A weird book set in a dystopian near future where the economy is collapsed and law and order has broken down. Europe has disappeared although people leave London in boats to try and find it. None seem to come back. Meanwhile, the country seems to have been invaded by some alien life force, or maybe it hasn't. It's a disjointed, shocking and yet strangely compelling book. 7/10 

May we Feed the King

 by Rebecca Perry

 An interesting book where a nameless curator discovers through a nameless archivist in a nameless palace a nameless medieval king. She is decorating the rooms for a forthcoming exhibition and through her we catch fragments of her life before being plunged into the life of this reluctant king. It is a history built from fragments and never complete. It was at times frustrating, at others fascinating posing questions about how history is built and stories told and where they cross over and merge. 7/10

John of John

 by Douglas Stuart

A tale of a gay man returning to his family home on the Western Isles and the unravelling of family and community secrets that have been foundational to his life. The story is not only about Cal but about his father John and about the close knit community built around the strict calvinist church. 

I was not sure we needed the story of Cal's friend which dragged out the middle of the book but then again maybe we did.

Sad and despairing but offering hope I really enjoyed this. 8/10

The Renovation

 by Kevin Orhan

This novel, like many it appears on this year's longlist, throws you off kilter when early on our central character Dilara discovers that builders have installed a Turkish prison cell instead of the expected ensuite in her bedroom. Not only that, but the cell leads to an actual Turkish prison even though she lives in Italy!

Crazy as this sounds, this is an absorbing novel about homeland and belonging but also about love and loss and the pain of loss when drawn out and gradual-her father has dementia and is living with them. 8/10

Helen of Nowhere

 by Makenna Goodman

A professor is looking for a new house having been kicked out of his university. This novel is told in the form of six acts featuring four characters. It is a great set up and starts well but it gets weirder as it goes on. Does the professor end up as a dog? and why? He wasn't the most likeable but even so. 5/10

The Shadow of the Object

 by Chloe Aridjis

Starting with a dog bite in Mexico and a friendship formed in hospital with an older German lady called Wilhelmina the narrator is drawn into a world unknown to her. 

On the death of Wilhelmina she returns to London to meet her son, bringing with her a magic lantern and the ashes. This is a gentle tale that is mesmerising and a love story to magic lanterns and illusion where we are always having to fill in the gaps. I really enjoyed this and would read it again. 8/10