Book Review Competition 2025

Glorious Exploits was an unexpected delight; a story of two friends trying to preserve the history of the Athenians while trying to defend their own honour as they attempt a rescue mission for the people once considered to be their enemies, while simultaneously exploring a complicated romantic relationship and the influence that the men have on the younger generation of Syracuse. Lampo and Gelon's camaraderie are put to the test as the two friends dispute over what could be the end of Athenian history as they partner up with the prisoners to put on the last piece of Athenian theatre.

The comedy in the book is incredible as is the heartache. Even though it can be difficult to empathise with the characters, it is hard not to feel the weight of their depressions which comes at the cost of their glorious triumphs. It has neither a good nor bad ending but it perfectly rounds off each of the characters arcs, with each of them having achieved something great in the chaos that was the time they were all together. It is a tragic story of hopes and dreams, victory and loss, and most importantly, friendship and rivalries.

A joyous communion between humanity and nature alongside beautiful and harrowing reminders of our society and how and by whom it has been shaped. ‘We Didn’t Mean to Kill Mr. Flynn’ taps into the dark past of the Irish queer community by giving a timely and suitable retelling of the murder of a man who was killed because his attackers believed him to be queer. This attack and its consequences helped to spark the Irish Pride movement.

This commentary combined with the lyrical imagery of dusk and nature create a sparkling and wonderous anthology, revealing the complexities of queerness as the nature of queer humanity is continually debated around the world. In this collection, Hewitt displays his own raw humanity as he expresses both his desire and the loss accompanying his identity. 

Darkness is a theme often explored in Hewitt’s anthology, both in the night of nature and in the societal and historical connections within his work. This motif flows through all of Hewitt’s work, but I particularly enjoyed the first poem in the collection, ‘A Ministry’, as it explores the dark desire of the poet combined with the religious imagery so tied to Irish art, following nature and how it is captured within the poem’s muse. These philosophical and natural depictions combine to form a truly inspirational achievement of Hewitt’s creation.

Reading The Coin, is like being pulled into someone's unfiltered stream of consciousness, making you question the internal world where anxiety, identity and self-control battle against you. The protagonist, a lady who remains nameless throughout the novel, is detached but immensely observant of the world around her. Zaher builds a profile of someone who is desperately trying to hold herself together in a society that is constantly trying to pull her apart.

Zaher paints a fascinating image of the struggle to exist between different cultures; she creates the sense of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. The captivating strength of the novel is a mesmerising contrast between the protagonist’s life where she is rich yet living cautiously, constantly cleaning herself externally but can't seem to cleanse the mess buried deep inside of her. The structure of the book, a fluctuation of brief, fragmented chapters followed by lengthy digressions, reflects her mental state as the narrative becomes more of a disjointed thought process. A compelling aspect of the story was the protagonist's relationship with dirt, seemingly obsessive and compulsive. She constantly scrubs and cleanses herself excessively; however, this goes far beyond her desire for ‘hygiene’. The dirt becomes symbolic of how her presence is perceived in America: even if she appears to succeed in the aspirations of wealth and American culture, she is still marked by her history that she can't scrub away.

The Coin isn't just a compelling book. It exposes a truthful, fresh perspective of a Palestinian emigre in the U.S, and it challenges and delights in equal measure.

Eley Williams’ Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good is, at its heart, a collection exploring the spontaneous, surreal beauty of moments and happenstances, arising from the seemingly unremarkable – the way we interact with ourselves and others in little, vibrant snapshots. In fact, this was the best aspect of the book – its triumphant expression of humanity through an urgent, vital, sometimes explosive narrative. However, at times, its verbiage can become cluttered and tangled up in itself, which, more often than not, distracted me from the principal meaning behind some of the stories, leaving me, upon their abrupt and sometimes jarring end, to trawl back through the story – in short, the unmistakably ecstatic, breathless expression sometimes obfuscates any delve into the underlying meaning - or at least for those without a very potent sensibility. Despite this, each story was thought-provoking, enchanting and, occasionally, unsettling, in a strangely satisfying way; always raising more questions than were answered; each character, bursting out from the page, felt refreshingly real and deeply human. The best writers put into words something you’ve felt almost unconsciously for the longest time, but have never been able to express – and this book does that, the whole way through.

I Will Crash is a beautifully honest story following the character of Rosa as she attempts to process her estranged brother’s sudden death. Rebecca Watson explores how a death triggers memories to come back to life and fill the void the person left behind. But what happens when the past already haunts you?

The broken lines and scattered paragraphs throughout the novel create a gripping and thought-provoking read. The structure makes it seem as if the reader is living inside Rosa’s mind, hearing every thought, following every move, becoming connected to her. This creates the incredibly authentic tone of the story. It makes the story real, brings it to life. The reader feels the presence of the brother, haunting the narrative. The reader feels the past become its own character. A separate entity that walks alongside Rosa until the end. The reader feels everything.

Rebecca Watson explores love, hate and death, in a raw yet fascinating way. She navigates the complexity of grief through Rosa and makes her question why it is so difficult to find peace even after her brother’s death. After all, “a death is a death is a death.”

Rapture’s Road by Seán Hewitt is an eloquent and articulate anthology of poems. The poems within the anthology contain a variety of themes including love, the natural world, and a range of supernatural elements, which add to the intrigue of the collection.

One of the poems within the anthology which I found particularly captivating and insightful was ‘little flower’. This poem, written in the form of a sonnet, uses a metaphor of a flower to depict a spirit, perhaps of a lost loved one, which is omnipresent in the speaker’s life. This poem intrigued me as the metaphor of the flower being a lost loved one was an intelligent and moving way to depict the spiritual presence of someone who the speaker has lost. The volta of the poem, could perhaps portray the death of the speaker, and demonstrate that they are finally with their loved one or the ‘flower.’ The use of caesura at the end of the poem adds a sense of abruptness, which further leads me to believe that this is imagery for the death of the speaker.

In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and interpreting Rapture’s Road. It allowed me to deconstruct metaphors and gain a different perspective and deeper understanding of spirits and loss.

The Safekeep follows Isabel, isolated in her late mother’s home, 15 years after the Second World War. She is content with her life and solitude until her brother brings his girlfriend to dinner and drops the bombshell that Eva will be coming to stay with her. At first, Isabelle despises the unknown woman in her home as things from her home begin to mysteriously disappear.

The novel presents a rich and vibrant post-war Dutch cultural backdrop, through the characters as well as the prevalence of Jewish festivals and traditions. Van Der Wouden takes us through the hardships of being part of the LGBTQ society through the characters of: Eva, Isabel, Hendrik and Sebastian. Additionally, she outlines the struggles of an emerging world still reeling from the effects of war through the character of Eva, as we witness her having nightmares, even in the arms of loved ones who couldn’t remove the terror she felt.

This book kept me theorising on what actually was happening to the missing objects. The initially cold and nonchalant complexity of Isabel’s feelings intrigued me as we see her slowly opening up her hard exterior to others, showing her vulnerability, and then trying to deal with some of the issues she was finally able to see.

Overall, The Safekeep is a really good book and I would strongly recommend it for its depth and intrigue, beautiful character portrayal and the originality.