Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Kyle A. Massa GENRE: Micro-fiction Collection PUBLICATION DATE: August 21, 2024 RATING: 3.6 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of a hundred hundred-word stories from various genres. A quick and entertaining indie read. A hecatontagon ( I dare you to pronounce it five times in a row without faltering! ), also known as a hectogon, is a hundred-sided polygon. A stew is, as you probably know, a dish of multiple veggies and meat slow-cooked. A “Hecatontagonal Stew” is a collection of a hundred stories from multiple genres and themes. This isn’t my first Kyle Massa work. I have read his novel ‘ Eggs for the Ageless ’ and two other story collections, ‘ Monsters at Dusk ’ and ‘ Past, Present, Future ’. Each of these has been a delightful experience, showcasing the author’s creativity and humour excellently. So I had ( unfairly ) high expectations from this new collection, and to a great extent, they were met. The specialty of this latest work is that each story (excluding the title)

AUTHOR: Siân Hughes GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 30, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A literary fiction novel about a woman who finally learns how to deal with her unresolved grief. Slow and poignant but also rambling (in both its meanings.) Might be a good read for the right reader, but not my cup of tea. (Should have known better, considering it is a Booker-longlisted work.) Plot Preview: When Marianne was eight, her mom went missing, leaving behind a distraught husband, a forlorn daughter, and a newborn son. As the years go by, Marianne struggles to make sense of her grief, and tries to understand what might have gone through her mother’s mind in her final moments. When she discovers a medieval poem named ‘Pearl’ and sees its theme being similar to that of her life, she tries to see her life and her pain through the poem’s lens of loss and healing. The story comes to us in Marianne’s first-person perspective. I have a fondness for Irish writers. I have a disli

EDITOR: Sonia Sulaiman GENRE: Speculative Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2024 RATING: 3.5 stars In a Nutshell: An anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. Focusses on the Palestinian identity as well as the speculative content without losing track of either. The OwnVoices writing and the undertone of wistfulness adds to the impact. Much recommended to SFF lovers. "All Palestinian fiction is speculative; we are always grappling with the past and living in expectation of the future..." "The world as I know it will be a memory by the time you read these words." This anthology of fourteen stories was conceptualized before the latest war began. So the above sentences in the editor’s note seem even more poignant. While we know war comes with uncertainty and mayhem, most of us haven’t experienced living under a daily threat of death and destruction. No wonder fantastical writing is the preferred mode of storytelling for Palestinian authors. Though specula

AUTHOR: Monita Kumari ILLUSTRATOR: Yadnyee Shingre GENRE: YA Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: NOT A CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK! Officially, an illustrated story book for young adults. The textual content might work better for this age group as it gets quite dark. I found the concept as well as the implementation somewhat half-baked. It might have worked better in a lengthier work with more plot and character development. Plot Preview: Seven-year-old Vivek dislikes his Daadi (paternal grandmother) for two main reasons: 1. She always forces him to have raisins, and 2. She pinches his cheeks every chance she gets. But when he gets his hands on her old diary, he learns some painful truths from her past and begins to understand her better. The story comes to us in Vivek’s third-person perspective, with some first-person interludes through Daadi’s diary entries. Bookish Yays: 😊 The appearance of the diary entries in the illustrations, with the sepia tone and the

AUTHOR: Helen Rutter GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 12, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade novel about a boy who struggles with his overactive “Brian”. This had great potential, and some of the content has great value, but somehow, the overall book didn’t come together well enough for my liking. Plot Preview: Since childhood, thirteen-year-old Josh has called his brain “Brian”. Brian is very active in Josh’s life, constantly poking and prodding him towards good ideas as well as mean insults. Brian also creates a lot of insecurity by making Josh feel guilty for the family arguments between his mother and his elder brother Charlie. When the situation at home gets too bad, Josh is sent to stay with his maternal grandmother for a few days. But she stays in a small shack in the middle of nowhere, and Brian protests vehemently. Will Josh be able to push Brian’s nagging away and strengthen his own voice? The story comes to us in Josh’s first-person

  AUTHOR:  Jaimie Admans SERIES: The Ever After Street, #4 GENRE: Romance-Drama PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A sweet standalone continuation to the Ever After Street series. Christmassy vibes, loveable lead characters, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers. Somewhat slow in tempo and not much conflict, but the emotions in the story trivialise the shortcomings. A heartwarming read for Christmas time. Plot Preview: After her career as a ballerina came to an abrupt end, Franca has been running her own nutcracker shop on Christmas Ever After, a festive offshoot of the Ever After Street. However, her shop might now be in danger, thanks to an unexpected competition pitting her against her “pet nemesis” Raff Dardenne and his snow globe shop. As they have been told that only one of their shops can continue on Ever After Street, it is going to be a fierce battle. When an accident leads to an injury, Franca is forced to accept assistance from the only person capa

AUTHOR: Rabindranath Tagore GENRE: Short Story Collection RATING: 3.2 stars In a Nutshell: A good collection of Tagore’s works, but the translation could have been better. A nice option for readers of character-oriented short fiction who are interested in Indian non-mythology classics. Rabindranath Tagore is, to date, the only Indian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a skilled poet and novelist, but his short fiction was a cut above the rest. The fourteen short stories in this collection were originally written in Bengali, and translated to English by various writers. The biggest plus of this collection is seeing the strong command that Tagore has over his narrative. His stories don’t go the way we want or the way a typical happy-ending tale should proceed. Rather, he takes each story where he wants and stops, whether the ending is complete or not, whether the characters are happy or not, whether the readers get closure or not. This could go either way for a reader, b

  AUTHOR: Matthew Francis GENRE: Historical Crime Fiction PUBLICATION DATE:  September 5, 2024 RATING:  2 stars. In a Nutshell: A crime fiction set In Victorian England. The gaslight theatre setting is appealing, but the pacing, the plot development, the female characters and the mystery itself didn’t work for me.  Plot Preview: 1882. Hastings Wimbury has always dreamt of playing Hamlet on a West End stage, but the closest he has got to the theatre so far is in his new job as a ‘gas boy’, taking care of the gas chandelier and the other gas-based light and shadow machines in the theatre. When a strange man meets him with an equally strange proposal, Hastings is not sure whether to accept it or not. But soon, the decision goes out of his control.  The story comes to us from the third person perspective of mainly three characters: Hastings, Cassie (an assistant to a ‘spirit investigator’), and Flora (Hastings’ secret fiancée.) Bookish Yays: 💎 The theatre setting, especially all the detai

AUTHOR: S.A. MacLean NARRATOR: Stephanie Bentley GENRE: Cosy Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: August 13, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: Officially, a cosy fantasy with shades of queer romance. Practically, a YA fantasy with a whiny, immature main character and minimal appearance of the promised lesbian-love track. I would have gone easier on this book were it actually a YA novel to compensate for my lack of affinity for the genre. However, it is promoted as an adult fantasy and hence I cannot suppress my disappointment. The magical creatures and Tanya saved the book from a lower rating. This is an outlier opinion. Plot Preview: Aila has been fascinated by phoenix birds since her childhood visit to the zoo. At present, she is living her dream job as the head phoenix keeper at a zoo focussed on saving endangered magical creatures and creating awareness. The only problem is that there hasn’t been a successful phoenix breeding programme in her zoo in almost a decade. When there is a heist

AUTHOR: Joanna Hagan GENRE: Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 30, 2024 RATING: 2.5 stars In a Nutshell: A seasonal analysis of FRIENDS, and the other sitcoms and shows before and during the “golden age”. The focus is not just on sitcoms, the feedback is not just positive, and the approach is more like a hindsight-analysis with 2024-glasses on. I'm a FRIENDS superfan, so some (actually, most!) of this review comes from biased eyes. Take it with a pinch of salt! As a FRIENDS fanatic, I have watched the show umpteen times, I can still watch any episode any day in any random order without any confusion, and I can even quote lines from multiple episodes. So when I saw this title listed on NetGalley, my reaction obviously was, “Could I BE more excited?” The execution of the book, however, has left me with mixed feelings. FRIENDS is not the only hit sitcom of its time, but it's probably the only one that still has a loyal fanbase not just from its original viewership but also a