Honey by Imani Thompson

 

As I got into this book I kept thinking in the back of my mind that it would be a hard one to review; that is, until I got to the serial killer bit, and I was back in my comfort zone.

Yrsa is doing a PHD at Cambridge on ‘how Afropessimism is shaping black women’s discourses on their liberation’. Yrsa’s interactions with her parents and especially her Caribbean grandmother have influenced her way of thinking as well as, of course, her studies into her chosen PHD subject.  She has a genuine need to protest on behalf of black women’s rights, but she has become obsessed, thereupon opening the box in which her basic instincts have been hiding, and now she doesn’t want to put the lid back on.

Yrsa kills bad men who need killing. She doesn’t waste much thought on her victims after each deed is done, except for making sure she doesn’t get caught. She also hooks up with men she is attracted to but hates. There are some funny lines through the book, such as …“Why can’t she just shag in peace? Why do men have to speak?” but as Yrsa’s mental state appears to deteriorate they’re not so funny any more. There is an important clue towards the end of the book which goes a long way towards explaining how Yrsa acts the way she does, and is the kind of thing that stories like this one usually start with. Honey was altogether a very interesting read.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I hope Imani Thompson is planning on writing more.

Published by Harper Collins

Henry Goes Bush by Wayne Marshall

 

In 1892 J F Archibald, publisher and editor of the Sydney newspaper The Bulletin, promoted a debate between Australia’s best known and best loved poets, Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Lawson’s poetry spoke of the hardships endured by people living in the outback, while Paterson’s poems were all about the romantic beauty and heroic challenges of life in the bush. Archibald had a couple of problems with Henry, however, one being that Henry had never been any further out of Sydney than Bathurst; and the other, more importantly, was Henry’s drinking which, by the time Henry was twenty five, was out of control. In an attempt to solve both problems, Archibald had Henry brought to his Sydney office where he gave him five pounds and a train ticket to Bourke, where he was to try experiencing the real bush and so coming up with more poems to add to the debate.

In Henry Goes Bush, Wayne Marshall imagines a weird and wonderful version of Henry Lawson’s time in Bourke. Obviously, it is going to be up to everyone who reads the book to come up with her or his own interpretation of Henry’s psychedelic adventures. I’ve decided Henry was suffering delirium tremens, but then again, his friends weren’t, were they? I’m not a profound enough thinker to solve the mysteries in the book but I do know that I enjoyed every page of this kind of colonial Australian Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz. I had my own rather battered collection of Henry Lawson’s books from my long ago childhood days but, sadly, they were destroyed in a flood three years ago.

There is just one thing I would suggest to Wayne Marshall: pack up a copy of this book and send it to Quentin Tarantino immediately. I’ve already seen the movie in my head but it needs to get out into the world. 

Published by Picador, Pan Macmillan Australia.

The Architects of Control by Harold Greene

 

The Allagash woods, northern Maine near the Canadian border , in the not too distant future. A massive solar farm has been erected over many hectares of land outside the town of New Denmark by Brightleaf, a company whose representatives had made convincing arguments regarding the company’s integrity as well as many benefits for the community, including a new fire station complete with brand new fire engine.

The Architects of Control is an intense, exciting, imaginative political thriller. Here in Australia where our population is less than a tenth of America’s we have compulsory voting, and each voter’s name is crossed off the electoral role as they register on the day of the election. The system is probably open to rorting of some sort; I don’t know how effectively it could be done, but I’m sure that if it can happen, it will. But what if, instead of rigging the votes, it could be made possible to rig the voters’ minds? The death of democracy by stealth!

Meanwhile, back in New Denmark, Deputy Robert Pures is dealing with the discovery of some unusual illegal immigrants, and also a critical incident involving young Deputy Anders Erikson. Robert is a grieving widower whose daughter, Lucy, is the town manager. Robert’s beloved wife, Sarah, is introduced into the book in the prologue so I suggest you tuck her away into a safe space in your mind before you proceed with your reading.

Regardless of which side of the divide you are on in relation to American politics, if you like political thrillers you will love this. Harold Greene has written a superb story about politics now, and into the possibly foreseeable future.

Published by Black Trumpet Press.

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