Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
Reviewed by Arabella Petts
Austin set the bar high with her 2021 debut novel Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, so this book was highly anticipated. People’s expectations were high, and from the response following publication, I think it’s safe to say they were met.
Interesting Facts About Space follows Enid, a lesbian who is obsessed with space and true crime. She also just so happens to be deaf in one ear. Whilst trying to forge a new relationship with her half-sisters, she becomes involved in her first serious entanglement and starts to believe that someone is following her.
I enjoyed this miles more than Austin’s first book. Although it was a quick read, its use of quirky humour made it really enjoyable. There is a layered exploration of bullying and confronting the various aspects of your life that I wasn’t expecting, but it ended up adding to my positive reading experience.
It is refreshing to see such varied representation within a character: Not only is Enid half-deaf but she is also diagnosed with PTSD and is referred for an autism assessment. She is a nuanced character – in relation to both her disabilities and her strange fears – and through her, many readers will feel seen. Her experiences with disability cause her to feel that there is something wrong with her, and it is great to have this aspect of disability represented within the plot.
I wasn’t necessarily expecting this book to have a plot twist because of its light-hearted nature, but it did, and it was a good one. The groundwork for it was laid out clearly, and after it was revealed, the foreshadowing became obvious, so I wanted to go back to see all the Easter eggs I had missed.
The ending and resolution to the story is lovely, with Enid learning how to receive and give back love, something that I felt really touched by (which rarely happens, especially with such a comedic book). I can definitely recommend this if you enjoy a positive resolution to your story endings.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Reviewed by Becky Connolly
Coco Mellors will be a familiar name to any bibliophile from the past two years. Mellors’s debut, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, was a TikTok phenomenon. Blue Sisters is her new novel, published in May 2024. But how does this book hold up?
Blue Sisters follows the lives of Avery, Bonnie and Lucky after the sudden loss of their sister Nicky. It’s been one year, and an email from their mother draws them to face their grief. Avery is a straitlaced, hard-working, successful lawyer living in her gorgeous big house with her wonderful wife. You also have Bonnie, previously a boxing sensation, and Lucky, a model, spending her life lauded for her beauty but constantly battling with her mental health. The dynamic between the sisters is particularly interesting; they all share the same traumas, suffering from the same upbringing, yet Mellors explores the different ways the girls deal with their emotions.
Something that is obvious from Mellors’s two novels is her ability to delve into the psyche of her characters. Nobody is ever two-dimensional; she paints an elaborate portrait of their history, shaping their incredibly complex characters, emotions and relationships with others. She delivers these slowly and superbly throughout the novel, feeding little crumbs until we are fed the whole picture. It makes her novels addictive, as no character is ever static and like people in real life, we are constantly surprised by them.
The book, however, isn’t only driven by her incredibly well-written characters. There are many aspects to the novel that make it compelling – bar the dimension of the three sisters, you become invested in their micro-plots, the love interests, the small mistakes, the mysteries and the weird characters that weave into the narratives of their lives. All these intricate details make for a richly woven novel.
Moreover, Blue Sisters is a polysemous narrative, alternating between the three sisters’ perspectives. Because of their distinction of character, this narrative is flawless – you could pick up the book at any point and know exactly whose perspective you’re in. This adds to the readability and compelling nature of the novel; you can see the characters’ miscommunications or frustrations with each other (as sisters often have!)
A significant part of this novel is, of course, grief and loss. What makes this novel realistic is the way grief touches different aspects of the characters’ lives; the way grief doesn’t take one shape but evolves to the individuals, is shaped around their relationship with their lost one. This is a driving force of the novel and one that Mellors has executed brilliantly. Nicky is ever-present in the novel, and as the sisters come to terms with their loss, you can feel their relationship with their lost sister evolve. They will never stop missing her, but they honour her through their relationships with one another.
Like all sibling relationships, this book is messy, complicated and frustrating but is filled with so much love. It is an incredible read and must be added to your to-be-read pile for this summer.