Over my Summer break I have been enjoying reading through some of the huge pile of unread books that have been building up on my desk. These include adult books (I really loved The Goldfinch, and laughed through The Cuckoo’s Calling, correctly predicting the murderous perpetrator on page 166, and I re-read The Sense of an Ending because its one of the most intriguing books I’ve ever read), but also some YA fiction. One of the most incredible authors I have only recently discovered is Margo Lanagan. This book of short stories is brilliant!! The author immerses you right into strange, dark, fantastical worlds from the first sentence, and as a reader I found I was working really hard to piece together those worlds with each following sentence. Here is an excerpt from a Goodreads review:

Lanagan paints her vision with artful language. Her scenes and images intrigue, unsettle, and even baffle the reader – each word is chosen carefully, so, as Kirkus Reviews said in their review, each sentence has the effect of a stone in a still pond.

These ten short stories are about love, life, belonging, pain, loss, and heroism, conveyed through otherworldly frames.

I’ve now included several other Lanagan books on my “to-read” shelf!