PositiveThe Irish Times (IRE)In some ways, Guillermo Stitch’s latest novel is a kind of modern fairy tale, a strange fable with an even stranger moral at its heart ... Stitch’s prose is mesmerising; his vocabulary is nothing short of awesome (and I mean that in the divine sense of the word) while his ability to weave whimsy and magical realism into an accented, almost anachronistically antiquated style is practically sublime. As a storyteller, Stitch seems to know what he’s doing, and the result is akin to the literary lovechild of Terry Pratchett and Salvador Dali. As a book that’s unapologetically bizarre, if not downright weird, it won’t be for everyone. But it’s certainly something.
Marco Balzano, trans by Jill Foulston
RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)Its English translation is delicate and assured and seems to retain the lyricism and immediacy of the Italian original ... Trina’s inner life and the inexorable rising waters bridge the temporal divide of years and generations, offering the reader a painfully relevant metaphor for the ways in which we must live our lives in a world that grows increasingly unstable.
Eoin Colfer
MixedIrish Times (UK)The question...seems to be, is there space for Colfer’s specific brand of Irish wit within this already crowded space? ... And the answer is yes. But that’s not exactly what we’re getting with Highfire. Primarily because it’s set in a swamp in Louisiana in southern United States. And while this gives Colfer a whole new palate of linguistic flair and colloquialisms to play with, it also, strangely, limits his traditionally expansive storytelling style ... It’s incredibly hard to write an original fantasy novel. And talking dragons are nothing new. But Colfer has managed to produce something fresh and infinitely readable here. Vern in particular is an incendiary joy; a cantankerous, lonely and existentially challenged dragon with a proverbial heart of gold – or fire. He resides happily at the core of a novel that never quite reaches its potential but has a hell of a lot of fun trying ... Colfer’s style is compelling, his language inventive, and, most importantly, his ideas are entertaining. I just want more. There’s no bigger picture here, and you can feel the lack ... Highfire is deliciously funny at times. In a sea of forgettable modern fantasy titles, it offers moments of genuine originality. It’s violent, but not quite violent enough. It’s witty but it’s not as razor sharp as some of Colfer’s best work. It’s ambitious but it could do better.
Jessica Anthony
RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)Woven throughout Jessica Anthony’s addictively witty narrative is the conceit that we live in an age in which everyone speaks too much and reflects not enough. What better lens to examine this notion through than the rhetorical minefield that is modern politics? As any satirist worth their salt these days must, Anthony has realised that the times we live in are already a kind of cosmic joke. What marks her latest work out as original and insightful is her narrative style, and the emotional core she sustains at the heart of the US congressman’s story. Fresh, astute and mouthwateringly sharp, this is a rare thing; a political satire that tugs on the heartstrings in unconventional ways.
Carmen Maria Machado
RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)A memoir utterly unlike most ... excruciatingly honest and yet vibrantly creative ... Machado draws us into an intricately crafted web of emotion, betrayal, sensuality and revelation ... But perhaps the most striking and disconcerting aspect of Machado’s story of her life is that it’s written in the second person. Revealing herself in searing honesty, she is utterly vulnerable in the prose she creates, and yet, because that second person prose addresses her reader directly, we are utterly immersed in her world, so much so that her world becomes ours ... There is bravery in [Machado\'s] endeavour, in honestly questioning how much an intimate, romantic and traumatic story can be told; how she herself can be trusted to tell a tale that has been told so many times before but that changes with every retelling ... rich and detailed but this reader longed for more insight into the connection between the Machado speaking this retelling and the younger, besotted, enchanted girl to whom she is speaking ... Innovative and haunting, compelling and jarring, Machado has created what is essentially a new form of memoir, a creative non-fiction story of her own life, her own thoughts, and her own nightmares.
