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Book reviews: New from Eoin Colfer, Molly Aitken, libby Page, Deborah Orr

Highfire by Eoin Colfer
Highfire by Eoin Colfer Highfire by Eoin Colfer

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Highfire by Eoin Colfer is published in hardback by Jo Fletcher Books, priced £16.99 (ebook £9.99)

WEXFORD author Eoin Colfer – the internationally bestselling writer of the Artemis Fowl series of children's books – is back, but this time with an epic first foray into the adult fantasy genre. When a power-move murder by corrupt (and sociopathic) constable Regence Hooke is witnessed by 15-year-old Squib Moreau, the fallout blows Vern's careful hideout right out of the Louisiana swamp. It all sounds fairly pedestrian, until you realise that Vern is a fire-breathing dragon. A vodka-guzzling, cable TV-watching, Flashdance fan, Vern isn't your typical mythical legend. And he's bummed out – hiding from the human world that massacred his species. But something about local tearaway Squib tugs on a dragon-heartstring, and together they take on the villainous ambitions of Hooke. Conceived out of Colfer's incredible originality, a high-velocity action-adventure ensues. The hilarious, violent and pop culture-packed tale blends the lavishly fantastical with the amazingly realistic, as smoothly as Vern's favourite vodka martini. Highfire is awesome in the truest sense of the word.

10/10

Rebecca Wilcock

The Island Child by Molly Aitken is published in hardback by Canongate, priced £14.99 (ebook £11.99)

SCOTTISH-born, Irish-raised Molly Aitken's debut novel is a confident tale of generational conflict and continuity, as told by Oona, a child born and raised on a remote Irish island. Bridling at the smallness of island life and particularly the strictures of her mother, Oona escapes as a young adult to raise a daughter of her own, but comes to realise it is easier to remove yourself physically than mentally. The three returning threads of the narrative – past, present and mythical – all advance together coherently as one, filling in the details of Oona's traumatic life, and combine somehow upliftingly at the novel's conclusion. Inspired in part by Irish folklore and in part by Persephone, the seasonally elusive daughter of Greek myth, this is a story steeped in fable, but also inescapably rooted in the real world, which can be every bit as gruesome and implausible.

8/10

Josh Pugh Ginn

The 24-Hour Cafe by Libby Page is published in hardback by Orion Fiction, priced £14.99 (ebook £7.99)

THE 24 Hour Cafe charts (perhaps unsurprisingly) the events taking place during one 24-hour stint at an all-hours café in London. The story is told by two best friends, Hannah and Mona, as they make their way through their shifts, interspersed with short vignettes from the customers entering the cafe. The book is an engaging read which makes it easy to speed through. Somewhat predictable in places, at times it felt more like a book of short stories, with some of the more interesting moments coming from the quick snapshots rather than the main narrative. It is well written; however, one of the main characters is incredibly selfish, and not always as likeable as perhaps the author intended. Fun to read, but not entirely memorable.

6/10

Megan Baynes

NON-FICTION

Motherwell by Deborah Orr is published in hardback by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, priced £16.99 (ebook £9.99)

COLUMNIST and editor Deborah Orr died in 2019, aged 57. Her memoir, Motherwell is a story of a place, a family, a girl, and how the geography, politics and time into which you are born affect the trajectory of your entire life. It's also about how it can take the death of your parents to connect all the dots. Orr sifts through items found while clearing out (and rifling through) her parents' bureau. Locks of hair, letters, school reports – using each to unfurl another moment from her memory. Some of those moments are just brutal to read. To have excavated them, and then share them on the page, is a feat of unbelievable strength. Orr grapples with the idea of narcissism, resolutely outlines the characters of her mum and dad, and recalls the things you clock as a child, but don't entirely decipher until years later, when the damage is done. The writing is quietly devastating and at times brilliantly scathing, but not without seams of happiness and magnificent wit.

9/10

Ella Walker

Rootbound: Rewilding A Life by Alice Vincent is published in hardback by Canongate, priced £14.99 (ebook £11.99)

A MEMOIR of broken love, learning to live with just yourself again, and the benefits of sticking your hands in soil, Rootbound sees journalist Alice Vincent outline how the end of a relationship took her outside onto the balcony. She shares her experiments with herbs and bulbs, describes the brain-space a bit of digging can provide and draws the struggles her generation faced after being promised the world (if you jumped through the right hoops), only to be rewarded with recession and an inability to just slow down and be. Rootbound's at its best though when telling stories of women gardeners through history, who broke with convention to pursue their plant obsessions. That, and Vincent's descriptions of how plants have cleverly, even sneakily, wound up in our homes. Slightly uncomfortably, she does rail against the trappings of modern life and screen time, without addressing the success of her Instagram account, but overall, Rootbound is a thoughtful musing on the strength to be found in nurturing green stuff.

6/10

Ella Walker

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK

This Book Will (Help) Cool The Climate by Isabel Thomas and illustrator Alex Paterson is published in paperback by Wren & Rook, priced £6.99 (ebook £4.49)

THERE has been a huge wave of new climate-conscious books – for children and adults – all aiming to help us be more eco and environmentally aware/save-the-planet/cut waste/eliminate plastic. Finding one that's actually a fun and engaging read (a tough ask in the face of the impending global warming catastrophe) can be tricky though. This Book Will (Help) Cool The Climate by Isabel Thomas makes an excellent go of it. Packed with facts (peppily animated by Alex Paterson's strong illustrations), Thomas follows up with practical advice, from how to pester politicians for change, to making a snake-shaped draught excluder, and weeing on the compost heap. It doesn't dumb things down – in fact, Thomas is very straight talking ("Human-caused global warming may be contributing to a sixth mass extinction"). All ages will learn something, and feel galvanised.

8/10

Ella Walker