REVIEW: The Dumb House by John Burnside

This novel was incredibly difficult to rank on Goodreads 5-point star system. It almost defies rating. The plot follows Luke, a man of an unidentifiable age, and his life following the death of his mother. Fascinated by the story that his mother tells him of ‘The Dumb House’, an experiment where children were raised in…

Fierce Fantasy Night @Waterstones Norwich

On Monday evening I got to attend the exciting Fierce Fantasy Night at Waterstones Norwich. I was really looking forward to the evening – the panel featured all female authors whose work I was a big fan of, or at the very least followed on Twitter and enjoyed their online personas. Authors Twitter accounts are…

Growing out of YA? The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

3* I frequently refer to Alexx throughout this review! We buddy read The Cruel Prince together, which was a lovely experience. You can find her wonderful blog here, on which she talks about books and health. I usually try to open my book reviews with a summary of what the book is about, but I’m finding that…

‘Why can’t I be more like them?’; reflecting on role models and feelings of inadequacy

I consider my role models to be pretty much anyone I look up for having an admirable skill or quality. And if you’re anything like me, your role models are people that you kind of wish you were. As a creative person, a lot of the people I look up to make some kind of…

REVIEW: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

4* Station Eleven is a post-apocalyptic novel which details the lives of various characters after the spreading of a fatal disease wipes out most of civilisation. Within hours of coming into contact with the illness people become incredibly ill, and then die within a matter of days. Airports are shut down; people barricade themselves in…

University Reading List Spring 2019

Another semester, another reading list! I’ve read a couple of posts that are similar to this before and found them really interesting, so today I thought I’d share my uni reading list for this semester with you! For some context, I’m currently in my second year studying English Literature at the UEA, which is in…

My Three Peaks Challenge – Leg 1: Autumn 2018

This is the first in what will be a series of post about my experiences in fundraising and training for the Three Peaks challenge, which I am tackling in June 2019. I hope this is somewhat interesting to read, but this is more of a record for me of the things I’ve done so far.…

Music that got me through the Autumn 2018 semester

Today I thought I’d share some songs and albums that I’ve loved over the past few months, particularly the ones that I’ve listened to whilst studying and writing my final essays this semester. I’m a huge advocate for Spotify, so this post was kind of inspired by my 2018 Wrapped. (I’m a nerd for my…

Why being busy doesn’t always work: the start of my second year at university

I absolutely love being busy. I adore feeling like I’m accomplishing things and being productive rather than spending time doing things that I feel are meaningless. I feel more fulfilled this way and as though I really value how every part of the day can be used to its fullest potential, whether this is in…

‘Currently reading’ tag!

Hey everyone! I have a couple of tags I've been meaning to do for ages, and since I'm not particularly in the mood to write any in-depth posts I thought I'd post a new tag everyday for the next 3 days. I saw all of these on Jamsu's blog, so sorry if you're tagged in…