Entertainment

Book reviews: New by Robert Webb, Christina Dalcher and Emily St Mandel

Come Again by Robert Webb
Come Again by Robert Webb Come Again by Robert Webb

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Come Again by Robert Webb is published in hardback by Canongate, priced £16.99 (ebook £7.12)

FOLLOWING his excellent memoir How Not To Be A Boy, writer and comedian Robert Webb brings us his debut novel, a wistful and at times wacky time-travelling story in which a widow, Kate, whose husband has died from a brain tumour, wakes one day to find herself back in university in 1992, where they met, and sets about trying to change the future. Webb captures the spirit of those early university days with warmth and humour, the flutterings of first love, the madness of Freshers' Week, the hopes and dreams of the students. It's a story about a woman having to return to the past to learn to re-engage with the present and to integrate her loss with the hope of the future. A sharply comedic subplot involving Kate's job in the present day in online reputation management, wiping dodgy backgrounds and unsavoury dealings of her clients from the internet, ramps up the madcap action as the book becomes crazier and more chaotic, bringing in Russian gangsters, karate experts, a car chase and a good old punch-up. It may be a poignant tale of love, grief and memory, but there are plenty of zany shenanigans to lighten the mood.

8/10

Hannah Stephenson

Q by Christina Dalcher is published in hardback by HarperCollins, priced £12.99 (ebook £5.99)

ELENA Fairchild is a teacher at a new elite school, and on the surface has a perfect life, with daughters who are exactly like her: beautiful, ambitious and clever. However, when her youngest daughter scores lower than expected on a state-mandated test and is taken away, Elena intentionally fails her own test to go with her. There she discovers the darker side of a society that constantly seeks perfection. This book feels full of potential in the opening chapters but somehow falls flat as it races to a hastily thought-out conclusion. In terms of dystopian novels, this one feels firmly middle-of-the-road. More time is needed to explore the characters, who are quite surface level for most of the book. It is an enjoyable read, if not exactly memorable.

6/10

Megan Baynes

The Glass Hotel by Emily St Mandel is published by Picador, available via ebook, priced £8.99

EMILY St Mandel's breathtaking 2014 novel, Station Eleven – which focused on a flu-like pandemic and the social collapse it triggers – proved eerily prescient. Read it if day-to-day life isn't already dystopian enough for you. The Glass Hotel doesn't have quite the same layers of grip and intrigue. Kicked off by a case of spiteful, vitriolic graffiti at a remote hotel, and revolving around a ponzi scheme that goes under, it has the bones for a clever plot, but a hollowness pervades the story, making it difficult to connect to protagonists and half-siblings, Vincent and Paul. St Mandel depicts loss and disappointment with nuance, but a lack of momentum means even a body falling over the side of a cruise ship has little impact on your emotions. Solid and shrewd, but not quite fascinating.

6/10

Ella Walker