This book is fantastic. But it also broke me. I finished it earlier in the week but I'm still sorting out how I feel.

I think I feel so unsettled after reading this book because I went in not knowing anything about the story. Early on in the book Mr Chetan moves in with Betty and her young son, renting a room to help out financially. Since the book is called Love After Love, I thought I could see where the story was going. Oh man, I wasn't even looking in the right direction!

It is a book about love and it does have many touching, happy moments. But it also has many sad, tough moments. The timeline is never made explicitly clear, but we follow the main characters over a span of 15-20 years, seeing their highs and their lows. 

It's a book about all kinds of love. Romantic love, love between friends, friends who become like family, maternal love, the love you have for your extended family.

Set in Trinidad, the language, the food, the vibrant culture and the history of the Island absolutely shines throughout the book. 

This is another novel where speech is written without quotation marks, or without specifying who is talking. However the formatting separates the dialogue from the main body of the story, and the characterisation is done so well that there were only a handful of times where I wasn't sure who said what.

The characters are nuanced and you can't help loving them. The writing is beautiful and engaging, but do be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster.

I'm a bit late to jump on the bandwagon for The Vanishing Half but I fell in love with Brit Bennett's writing after reading The Mothers and immediately put this one on hold at the library.

I've read a lot of reviews about The Vanishing Half so I thought I knew what to expect from the book. For such a hyped book, I was pleasantly surprised to discover characters and storylines I wasn't aware of.

Brit Bennett writes beautifully flawed characters so well. The Vanishing Half tells the story of twins who run away from home, before one disappears without a trace. The twins are identical, but end up living completely different lives. Spanning several decades we see their lives unfold, learning their secrets and the vulnerabilities they're trying to keep hidden.

 Brit Bennett also manages to explore so many issues throughout the book, without the book ever feeling preachy.

The biggest issue explored is race and how different shades of Black are seen and judged, as well as the benefits that come from passing as white. Gender, family bonds, and broken family ties are also integral issues. There's even a queer narrative that's not traumatic. 

Through the characters we see the complex parts that make up identity and the ways different people only get to see certain parts of that identity. We see how the past effects the present. And how the choices we make can end up defining us. 

It jumps to different decades and different characters with ease. It was the kind of book I couldn't wait to pick up every night. I flew through the last part because I did not want to put it down. Don't be put off by the hype, The Vanishing Half is a gem of a book.

This is not your typical thriller. It's not fast moving or plot driven. In fact, not much happens at all. What it is, though, is a highly atmospheric, tense and unnerving book.

The story follows Amanda, Clay and their two kids (a white family) on holiday to Long Island. They hire a house, start to settle into the remoteness, then are startled in the middle of the night by a knock at the door.  It's the owners of the house (a rich, black couple) claiming there's been a citywide blackout in New York.

This is where things start to get creepy. 

None of the characters are able to pinpoint exactly what's going on, but there's a definite sense of doom. We don't really know what's happening either but we see how all the characters feel and deal with the unexpected crisis. Rumaan Alam focuses on the tiny, mundane ways that they deal with their situation. Only dropping the smallest of hints as to what's happening on a bigger scale.

Unlike most thrillers, the 'what' of what's happening isn't the important part of the book. Instead, it's the 'how'. The book presents a fascinating look at social niceties, how people interact with each other in troubling circumstances, and how age, race and class impact on the way people connect with each other.

It also shines a light on the way we've become so dependent on technology. We're so used to having the answer to any and every question right at our fingertips. How do we know if flamingoes are migratory birds without Google? How do we know if there's an impending disaster if we can't view it on a live news stream? 

Leave The World Behind is weird and mundane. It's tense and creepy. I like character driven novels and books that break genre stereotypes, so I really enjoyed it.

If you like typical, fast paced, plot driven thrillers you might not like this one. But if you like atmospheric books that keep you up late reading, then you should give this one a try. 

Transcendent Kingdom is one of those books where the writing is so beautiful I wanted to be encompassed in it. It's book where I read paragraphs again and again - not because I didn't follow what happened, but because the sentences were so evocative, so perfect that I needed to read them again.

The words are lyrical and flow like a gentle stream. Until abruptly Yaa Gyasi, drops a bombshell and the illusion is shattered. And I think that perfectly portrays Gifty's experiences with life and religion.

In Transcendent Kingdom we get an intimate look into Gifty's life - both in present time and looking back at her childhood. 

As a child Gifty was deeply religious, as a grown up she's moved away from the church and has put her faith into science. The novel follows Gifty as she tries to live with her mother's depression, cope with her brother's death to addiction, all while getting her PHD in neuroscience.

Reflecting on the past we get insights into her life through journal entries and letters she wrote to God.

In both her childhood and adulthood we see Gifty question religion, science and philosophy. She's trying to figure out how they work together. She's trying to find something to put her faith in when religion has failed her.

Yaa Gyasi also explores family relationships, addiction, mental health, race and life as an immigrant. All the topics are explored with such tender finesse. 

Gyasi describes childhood so realistically; the innocence and self-confidence young children have is captured so perfectly. She looks deeper at people with addiction, showing their full complexities and not just their addiction.

I loved everything about this book. It was thought provoking, emotional and beautifully told. It gets a solid 5 stars from me.

The Push by Ashley Audrain was everywhere when it was published in January. It was probably the book with the most hype at the start of the year.

It's not quite a thriller. It's more of a psychological, family drama. It's a look into the dark side of motherhood and the endless, exhausting days of early babyhood seen through the eyes of someone who doesn't also see the positive moments.

I thought the book had similar vibes to We Need to Talk About Kevin. Not in the plot itself, but in the style of narration. We're only getting Blythe's perspective on motherhood and her thoughts on her daughter. Which to me raised a lot of questions. Is she a reliable narrator? Can her perceived lack of connection with her baby be blamed entirely on a baby who won't bond with her? Is a baby even capable of actively disliking her mother? Or is it her struggles with post-partum depression and family trauma? Is it nature or lack of nurture? Or is it something darker?

The story is unsettling in its subtle nuances and exploration on the hardest parts of motherhood. Blythe's absolute despair after sleepless nights and months and months of broken sleep is uncomfortably relatable. This is made particularly uncomfortable by the fact that she doesn't experience the myriad of joys that the early days of motherhood also contain. The hard days are meant to be worth it, right?

At times the book is a bit predictable, but I do find that most books that fit even loosely into the thriller genre do tend to follow certain patterns or tropes. In saying that though, it was a book I did not want to put down. I was absolutely gripped and read the book in a day. The pace was good, the character development of Blythe was central to the story, and you can feel Blythe's paranoia.

If you like complicated mother/daughter relationships or want a book you can't put down, The Push will satisfy those cravings.

It wasn't the best book I've ever read but I did enjoy it. It's a book that allows for lots of discussion and I wouldn't be surprised to see Reese Witherspoon turn it into a movie.