Ragtag Giggagon

Some spoilers below! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Stories tend to be a mix of the uncanny and the canny, or the unhomely and the homely. If we start things entirely in medias res, we are likely to confound the reader who is not yet acclimatised to the writer’s world. The assumption that the reader knows what’s going on in the author’s head is a failing of bad literature. LT Lindberg starts her engaging tale in the rather unsettling yet familiar environment of a mental health facility on Earth before the focus shifts with a flight from this world to a fantasy realm replete with spires and castles and sorcery and talking animals. The set-up impresses because we can follow along with Cayla as she learns the history and myths surrounding this new world. The reader may wonder, though, if this is a world created entirely by heroine Cayla’s schizophrenic musings. Or is it a genuine dimension where an evil villain has cast a long shadow across the land, turning the living into undead servants to do his bidd

The book’s title, “ For such a time as this ”, is based on a Bible quote which is part remonstration and part piece of advice. The original quote was directed at Esther, who, it is suggested, holds her regal position at a moment of importance in history, and she must take full advantage while she can. It could be taken more generally to mean that we are all living through moments of which we should make the most. Pauline Dewberry’s creative non-fiction tome is a testament to the quote. Throughout her experiences taking on leukaemia, she finds solace in the love from her cats, and offers comfort to others undergoing treatment for cancer, in equal measure. The book is also a fascinating primer in what it’s like to undergo courses of chemotherapy while suffering through a very harrowing illness. Maintaining an awesome sense of humour throughout her ordeal, Pauline also explores her faith with respect to God's timing in answering the many prayers offered up for her. She is at

A gladiatorial battle in a bull ring, a fight against goblins on a ship, and a struggle against a monster whose gutting results in the salvaging of a fallen soldier are three highlights in this urban fantasy novel focusing on journalist Nathaniel Runnels and the vampiric Daniel, who acts as his mentor. Runnels is struggling through life, somewhat poisoned by the cynicism of the world, it seems, when he first encounters Daniel - who's a tour de force of cynicism when he chooses to be. His dialogue with angel Sariel is a case in point. A great read that's well worth diving into. Get Only Human here . You can follow JD Estrada on Twitter and Facebook .

Can’t we all identify as black sheep occasionally? Don’t we occasionally vent at, or declare our love for, those who don’t deserve it? Do we not engage in retail therapy? Haven’t we all stayed home instead of going to parties occasionally, due to social anxiety? Well then, Natasha Helen Crudden wants to have a quick – and powerfully eloquent – word in your ear. Much of this poetry is directed at persons. These subjects are rarely the general reader. The power of much of the work, however, lies in taking many of her admonitions, tributes, compliments and criticisms personally. The beauty of much of this talented poet’s work is in the identifiable. Trigger Warning , for instance, is directed at a (probable) female whose “killer Achilles heels” and “summer wardrobe of disorders” provide validation. It transpires that this subject doesn’t have “all that much to say”, falling back on trigger warnings as an excuse to retreat after causing the mayhem typical of somebody with (

A novel written in verse, Anais Chartschenko’s The Weightless One is an unconventional character portrait of a young woman who’s been sectioned due to an eating disorder. Seemingly inadvertently – and with consummate skill through the prism of convalescence and therapy – Chartschenko slowly reveals a family background and the possible rationales for the development of her heroine’s psychological issues in the series of poems. We also get an insider’s view of a mental health facility. We learn how patients shouldn’t compare care and diet plans with each other. We discover a little about how detrimental the pursuit of modelling from an early age can be on a psyche. That some airbrushed celebrities may not be the best people to place on pedestals is also hinted at. Again, showing impressive topicality, when it comes to the reasons for being placed in the care of the mental health services, there are echoes of the misogyny prevalent in the high school and college campus sexual as

Conservative thinker Jordan Peterson occasionally cites the traditional notions of the chaos of the feminine and the order of the masculine in his work. Although precedent has been set in ancient literature, the contentious nature of these gendered attributions is undermined by an examination - for instance - at a typical male-occupied space, and a female-occupied space. Women are generally neater than men. While unfair too to attribute the feminine specifically to females and masculine to males, the conventional wisdom with respect to feminine chaos and masculine order could be construed as challenged, if not debunked entirely, by Bianca Bowers in her collection Butterfly Voyage - by virtue of her gender. Sitting astride a body of work that is more conventional, Bowers tackles the atrophy taking place around the world in a book replete with the wisdom of experience and maternal instinct. Through its poet's voice, Butterfly Voyage can be read as a brief to strive against d