This is the eighth Wheel of Time novel, and by this point it really feels like the series is just resting on its laurels, because barely anything happens. It’s just Rand musing about the responsibility he carries on his shoulders while being insufferable, Perrin and Faile having a rubbish and toxic relationship, every woman wanting to sleep with Rand while judging other women for dressing in revealing clothes, and that’s about it.

I’m being kind of flippant here – ultimately I enjoyed this book and that’s because I’m invested in its world, and its characters, but if it weren’t for that and this was just a standalone piece of fantasy fiction, I’d find it very boring. It really felt like such tiny amounts of progress were made in the overall story, that it kind of felt like, what’s the point? Right at the end, there was a pretty major development, but with the way that some characters aren’t in certain books, I’d not be surprised if it’s not addressed in the next one anyway.

It’s a shame, because I remember reading the first book and feeling a truly enchanting sense of adventure as the characters set out across the world. At this point it feels like they’ve all already been everywhere so there’s much less curiosity about what might happen and what they might encounter, and nothing new happens to keep it interesting.

Long-running TV shows sometimes have filler episodes as they build up to larger, more important events. This felt like a filler book and that makes for pretty dull reading. It wasn’t outrageously bad and reading it was not a negative experience, but I desperately hope that something a bit more interesting happens next time.

Rating: 5/10

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Everyone knows the story of Jekyll and Hyde – it’s easily one of the most well-known stories ever written, to the extent that it transcends the medium of literature and is literally something that gets used in day-to-day speech. How often, for example, have you heard something described as a “Jekyll and Hyde situation” where somebody is very nice one minute, and very nasty the next? Probably loads of times. I want to read practically everything, but a novel as influential as this? Of course I was excited to see what it was like.

The only problem is that because it’s so well known, a lot of the fun is taken out of it. Most of the story is built around a mystery. What’s the connection between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? How does Hyde have so much sway over Jekyll? These days we all know they’re the same person, so the ultimate twist at the end is much less impactful. I can imagine that it was an absolutely incredible ending back in the day, but it’s a shame that the novel is essentially universally spoiled – especially as it’s very short and all built around this one mystery.

Nonetheless, I don’t mean to suggest that there is no point in reading this. It’s still an enjoyable ride that is beautifully written. The novel’s narrator, Gabriel Utterson, has that kind of deeply affectionate friendship with Dr. Jekyll that I love to see in nineteenth century literature. I could also totally read Jekyll as gay, because when talking about his repressed desires, he mentions things he finds too shocking to mention – and considering the violent things he does mention, and the extremely uptight Victorian mindset, I think that would work quite well. That then also explains his self-loathing and desperate attempts to change himself. I thought this was a much more overt than any other allegedly gay character in nineteenth century literature that I’ve come across, so found that quite an appealing aspect.

If you love gothic novels, this is definitely one you’ll want to read. If it were longer, it’d potentially outstay its welcome when it can no longer depend on mystery and intrigue to keep people interested. Nonetheless, this is a novel with great characters and a delightful atmosphere, and it’s central premise, of their being a dark side to even the nicest people, is an endlessly interesting one.

Rating: 8.3/10

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While most people will know the Super Mario series for its video games, there has actually been a long-running manga running alongside it for over 30 years. The manga follows the same storylines as the games, but with a strongly distinctive style. The sense of humour is very different to anything you’d expect from Nintendo, and Mario is portrayed as comically dumb and aggressive (even if still generally heroic).

Over all these years, Yukio Sawada has been writing the Super Mario-kun manga and it’s never been officially translated into English until this collection. Though you only get a few chapters taken from larger story arcs, anyone who’s played the games won’t have any difficulty understanding what’s going on in the samples included – and even those who haven’t played them can use the brief summaries included before each chapter to get the gist (it’s never anything too complex).

I was particularly pleased to see that it included a chapter from the Super Paper Mario arc, as that is quite possibly my favourite Mario game and I think it has one of the most interesting storylines. I wish it had included some of the more serious moments from Super Paper Mario though, or even Super Mario Galaxy – it’s usually just wacky takes on fairly standard parts of the games.

Having said that, the most interesting thing in this collection (and to my mind, the best) was the story called Super Mari-Old. This story is not based on any of the games, but rather, the author’s life. In it, Mario finds himself starting to grow old, and as he does, he finds it harder to be so constantly happy and full of life. He becomes so depressed that he even needs to admitted to hospital – which the author notes, is a parallel of his own life, where he fell into a depression after his father died and then struggled to write funny, silly Mario comics while it was happening, ultimately being hospitalised himself.

I love the Mario series, I always have, but one critique that I’d aim at it is that it sometimes lacks a level of emotional depth that I’d like to see more of. This story had exactly the kind of depth that I like, and it used Dr. Mario in a very cool and interesting way too. It’s such a unique piece of Mario media that I think any fan would enjoy reading it.

Don’t get me wrong though – it’s mostly very fun and silly. You’ve got Mario obnoxiously dismissing people as losers and using his friends as bridges to get over lava, and you even have a scene of Bowser peeing on someone. It’s quite juvenile, really, but I still had a good time reading it and I’m sure I’d have had an even better time if I read it as a child or teenager.

Altogether, it’s a fascinating slice of both Mario and manga history, and I think it will be enjoyable to anyone with even a mild interest in Mario. I wish it had more serious moments (or at least a bit of Donkey Kong content) but I still loved it.

Rating: 8.7/10

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The United Kingdom seems to become a more and more transphobic place all of the time – fortunately, we have people like Shon Faye speaking with a voice of reason and compassion. Trans people are just ordinary people trying to live their lives, and yet they’ve been portrayed in such a way that suggests that their very existence is problematic.

The biggest thing is the moral panic that surrounds children receiving treatment after they realise they are trans. A lot of people talk about children receiving irreversible surgery, or act as though everyone who comes into the GP talking about gender dysphoria is immediately given hormone treatment. This book details the reality – that surgery can only be given after somebody reaches age 18, and that any kind of treatment for trans people is really hard to get (requiring them to jump through lots of hoops that essentially force them to act in a way that is stereotypical of their gender). She also then highlights that very few people who receive treatment ever regret it, and indeed see a significant increase in quality of life (while those who don’t gain access to it are at a much higher risk of suicide).

She also addresses concerns that well-meaning but ignorant parents are making their children pursue treatment as trans kids, when they’re really just mildly interested in things traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Using several case studies, she highlights that this is really not the case, and that, in fact, a parent with two trans children actually faced serious problems from social services because of it – even though it was ultimately discovered that there was no wrongdoing, they just had two trans kids. With a legal system that’s so keen to stop parents imposing a trans perspective on their kids even when they are actually trans, how would they ever have room to do so?

It also tackles the rampant transphobia in the media, with several examples of tabloid newspapers posting highly inaccurate stories in order to provoke a negative response. By the time a clarification is posted in the following issue (which will have nowhere near as much prominent as the misleading headline) the damage will be done and thousands will retain the prejudice misinformation as truth. It’s the kind of thing that kids should read while they’re in school so that they can be conscious of the manipulative behaviour of the media and how it works to make people hate those in minority groups. Very sadly, it also details how one particularly nasty story likely contributed to the death of a trans person.

I learned a lot from this book and it helped me to better understand the problems facing trans people and the extent of the lies that have been told about them. People are often lead to believe that they’re defending women by attacking trans people, but these two things are not at odds. Yes there are still questions to be asked about the most effective way to support trans people during their transition (a lot of improvements are needed) – but there are no questions to ask when it comes to treating them with basic compassion and respect.

Rating: 9.1/10

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Emma is a novel that I’d heard about many times before I read it – always in the context of it having an unlikeable protagonists. The funny thing is, I didn’t find Emma unlikeable at all. Sure, she’s a flawed character, but she’s well-intentioned and quite funny too – the scenes with her tend to be more entertaining than those without. It probably comes from Jane Austen herself saying that the novel’s protagonist is a character that nobody but she will like, and perhaps it ended up being sell-fulfilling. Ironically, I hear Emma described as unlikeable much more than lots of much more unlikeable characters in other novels.

What may be off-putting for some readers is that there’s not very much of a story to this novel. It’s essentially about Emma and her interactions with her friends and family at various social gathering and private get togethers. A big focus is on her relationship with her friend Harriet, with whom she gets involved in a number of misunderstandings – typically, it’s that Emma thinks that Harriet is in love with someone, or vice versa, and then tries to ignite the embers of attraction in the other person, but ends up creating one-sided crushes. Big over-arching plots may be preferable to some, but I feel like this style is much truer of life.

The way it’s all presented is actually kind of funny. I can see why it makes some people dislike Emma, but she’s never shown as meddling for the sake of meddling – she’s always thinking of her friends’ wellbeing and acts in their best interests. Although, to be fair, I was a little bit disappointed by some of her actions towards the end (just not enough for me to stop liking her).

I also quite enjoyed Emma’s relationship with Mr. Knightley. The two of them are old friends and he quite frequently thinks that Emma is making bad decisions, and then they have the kind of affectionate arguments that only people who are very comfortable with one another have. They’re a good duo.

Besides the interesting relationship dynamics, and the humour behind witty retorts and unfortunate understandings, one thing that stood out to me about this novel was its high levels of cosiness. The whole atmosphere of the book is great, and one scene where characters are enjoying a Christmas get together on a snowy night, was truly wonderful to read.

As is quite common for Jane Austen novels, it’s a little too drawn out, and is definitely overly wordy at times (to the extent of being confusing). Nonetheless, if you’re used to her style, it’s not going to be a problem (though keep in mind that in this regard, she’s worse than a lot of contemporaries) – but for me, these were relatively small issues. My overall impression of this book was definitely a positive one.

Rating: 8.2/10

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I haven’t read an enormous number of academic papers before, but this was easily the most entertaining read of them all. Of course, I don’t want to suggest that it favoured entertainment over information, because it’s a well researched and informative piece of writing – there’s just something very satisfying about seeing the hateful perspectives of regressive people unravelled and debunked.

People who subscribe to far-right political beliefs always seem to point to history and say “Well, we had those same beliefs hundreds of years ago, it’s arrogant to think new so-called progressive perspective should supplant them” but so often, this is done with a misunderstanding, or intentional misrepresentation of how the actual history played out. Rory does an excellent job of highlighting some modern examples of this.

There are modern far-right groups who claim to be continuations of medieval military orders, perhaps in an attempt to make themselves seem more prestigious or respectable, but who are really entirely unrelated and tend not to even follow the same ideologies. The most embarrassing thing that Rory highlights is the fact that in a lot of cases, there’s evidence that the actual, historical medieval orders had a more progressive attitudes towards women, or people of other races.

Not only does it do a good job of highlight these groups’ ignorance (or dishonesty), but it’s a good reminder that history is rarely as simple as people try to make it out to be – and those who do so are usually doing so with an agenda. Overall, it was a really interesting piece of writing and I enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 8.7/10

The second Dune novel sees Paul Atreides now ruling as an emperor. Sadly, like all the other sci-fi and fantasy boys, he’s just an all-powerful, amoral dictator. It’s hard to really feel anything for someone who pontificates about how great of a man Hitler is (which he literally does), but I did really enjoy exploring the politics of this world.

The novel feels almost completely different from the first one. Initially, Paul is a young and almost helpless young man battling against the odds to avenge his family and overthrow the powerful forces of evil that turned his life upside down. Now he’s struggling to hold together a giant empire, and trying to cement himself as a kind of god-like being.

Although it was a little harder to understand what was going on sometimes, I was still pretty engaged throughout. I wish there was more sandworm action, but I’m glad that was swapped for something that feels very different, rather than just giving us more of the same.

One of my favourite additions to this book is Alia – though she did have a small appearance in the first book, she really becomes her own character here. She’s a strange mixture of teenage girl, and someone who’s wise far beyond her years due to the knowledge she received from her Bene Gesserit mother. She’d kind of other worldly in the way she behaves, and I found her quite enigmatic.

This book also sees the return of the formerly dead, Duncan Idaho. He was revived as a gift for Paul, but intended to be an assassin. The process of reviving him meant that he maintained his technical skills, but lost all his memory and personality. He now goes by the name Hayt and kind of considers himself a separate person, but also seems to want to find out more about who he was. He’s quite conflicted, and I generally think the concept behind him is very cool.

The problem is, Hayt is also connected to one of my least favourite parts of the book. I won’t spoil it but essentially, he’s shown to be sexually attracted to Alia, who is just a teenager, and who Hayt himself is shown to see as a child. If that’s not gross enough, Frank Herbert also thought it was necessary to have Paul see his sister naked and have some confusing feelings about it. Why do all male sci-fi and fantasy writers feel the need to put stuff like this in?

Overall though, I could look past the unpleasantly weird stuff and enjoy the book. It has its flaws, and is quite dry sometimes, but it’s an interesting enough setting. It’s hard to compare it directly against the first book – sometimes I think it was a bit worse, sometimes I think it was a bit better. Either way, its a worthy continuation.

Rating: 6.3/10

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This collection of stories features the grand return of Sherlock Holmes after his seeming death in The Final Problem. I think he comes back strong, and the stories in this collection are very much on the level of his earlier outings. Here are my thoughts on the stories:

The Adventure of the Empty House
This is the story in which Holmes and Watson are finally reunited – with Sebastian Moran attempting to track him down and assassinate him. Although I feel bad for Watson and wish there was a deeper look at the emotional impact of Holmes’ faked death, I really like the tension in this story and think of it as one of my favourites.

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
Holmes and Watson are visited by a man who claims to have been set up for a murder that he did not commit. It’s difficult to say anything about this one without spoiling it, but the ultimate twist in this story was very satisfying – it goes in a very different direction than you might expect.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men
This is probably one of the most iconic Sherlock Holmes stories, with Holmes’s client showing him a strange language made up of tiny dancing stick figures. Ultimately, it’s also one of the bleakest Holmes story, and much less whimsical than others, and much less than you’d expect this one to be, given the central theme and the title.

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
A woman seeks Holmes’s advice after finding herself being followed by a strange man on a bike as she rides to work. The character has a rather interesting backstory, and I liked the nuanced twists and turns – and to see Holmes stepping up against the mistreatment of women in his time.

The Adventure of the Priory School
In this story, Holmes and Watson investigate the disappearance of a student and his German master. This is another story where the characters have quite an intriguing backstory and there are twists that I never saw coming. One of my favourites in the collection.

The Adventure of Black Peter
Holmes is called in to investigate the murder of a horrible and violent man – his method of finding the killer is characteristically quirky, and the actual circumstances of the death are quite different to what may have been expected.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
Holmes and Watson come up against an awful professional blackmailer. He’s one of the most unpleasant people in all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and the adventure that surrounds him is quite an atypical one. Holmes and Watson aren’t actually so important to the story this time, but I absolutely love what happens.

The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
In this one, Holmes is investigating the destruction of miniature busts of Napoleon. In this story in particular, I enjoyed reading about Holmes’s methods of investigating a problem that seems so illogical and incomprehensible, and then ultimately getting to the bottom of quite an interesting story.

The Adventure of the Three Students
During a visit to a university town, Holmes gets caught up in a scandal involving the potential leak of an upcoming exam. Together with Watson, they work to prevent a huge problem for the university – I liked this for being a smaller scale, slightly lower stakes story.

The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
In some respects, this story reminded me of the Norwood Builder – at least in terms of its revelation. However, while there are some superficial similarities, it still stands alone as a unique narrative, and one that has a character with a really interesting backstory.

The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarter
Holmes and Watson get caught up in the world of university sports. After a key Cambridge rugby player disappears, Holmes is brought in to investigate. I always enjoy Holmes in a university setting, for some reason, and in the end, this turns out to be another very bleak story.

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
Following on from the last story, this was another one which is actually pretty sad. I quite like it though, as it has Holmes standing up for a woman who has been abused by a horrible partner. In some respects, I found it similar to The Solitary Cyclist in that it has Holmes opposing the misogyny of his time, and I always like to see that.

The Adventure of the Second Stain
A fantastic story that sees Holmes having to investigate the disappearance of some government documents which, if released to the general public, could have disastrous consequences for the country. The situation turns out to be very different from what it appeared and this is actually a very sweet story. I love seeing Holmes involved in political adventures, and the ultimate twist in this story was delightful.

The collection really ends on a high note and I think, all things considered, I probably like this just a little bit more than The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but maybe a smidgen less than The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. There are some fantastic stories here.

Rating: 9.3/10

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In this book Reni Eddo-Lodge paints a very clear picture of racism in the UK, going into detail about the history from which it has grown. As someone who likes to stay well informed about this subject, so that I am well equipped to tackle it, I learned a number of things here – especially about racism in fairly recent history. As the author suggests, the fact that a lot of the things she writes about (e.g. the racist actions of the Bristol Omnibus Company, now known as First Buses) are relatively unknown among the general populace is a sign of the failings of our education system.

I thought the title felt a little bit like the bookish equivalent of clickbait. Other than the opening, where she talks about not wanting to talk to white people about race (even though she’s kind of indirectly doing so through this book), that doesn’t really come up throughout the book. She also writes about the decision as if it’s really shocking or controversial, but to me it feels like a fairly standard decision for people from marginalised groups to avoid talking about the discrimination they’ve faced when among those who haven’t experienced it – it just makes sense if you want to protect your mental health. On the other hand, I suppose there’s probably a significantly sized demographic who think this really is a shocking stance because they’re quite ignorant about the subject.

That was the only part that didn’t sit quite right with me – the rest was fantastic. Although, of course, when I say “fantastic” I mean, well-argued, informative, and insightful. The subject matter can often be extremely bleak, especially when covering police brutality, and even the murder of black people at the hands of racist police officers. If anyone ever thought that institutional racism in the police force is only a problem in America, they should definitely read this.

Importantly, she also highlights the racism that comes from so-called progressive groups – talking a lot about British feminism, and how it is very often angled at white women and the problems they face, rather than taking an intersectional view to help women of all skin colours. Looking to the mainstream feminist voices, this can definitely be true sometimes, though there are people like Laura Bates who certainly try to avoid that (and I believe she is mentioned specifically as an exception).

There seems to be two main points to the book – the first being to offer a cathartic voice of solidarity for anyone else who may have decided to give up on talking to white people about race, and the second being to highlight that white people have more to do in the battle against racism. I agree with both points, although think that the responsibility to stand up and tackle racism is not something every white person can do (potentially for lots of different health reasons or power dynamics), but the point still stands generally. All in all, it’s a book I’d recommend to all people who care about eliminating racism.

Rating: 8.6/10

Buy it here.