Essays, articles and assorted pieces on books, culture, everyday life and the occasional unexpected subject, written for curious readers and rather different purposes.
Why Anne Carson’s Greek Myths Feel Stranger Than Everyone Else’s
Geryon began as a monster in somebody else’s heroic story.…
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The Lost Art of the Ridiculous Fantasy Hero: Howl’s Moving Castle at 40
Forty years after Diana Wynne Jones gave us a vain,…
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Why Do We Always Return To Jane Austen?
You return for Elizabeth and Darcy, perhaps, or for Emma’s…
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How The Love Hypothesis Helped Fanfiction Take Over the Bestseller List
From The Love Hypothesis to Alchemised: A story begins under…
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Whistle and I’ll Come Back: A review of Anne Patchett’s Whistler
Ann Patchett’s Whistler is a novel of disappearance and return,…
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Why Everyone Is Reading The Odyssey Again
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster has sent readers nearly three thousand years…
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When Did Reading Become Another Thing We Had to Be Good At?
Somewhere between reading goals, impossible TBRs, BookTok wrap-ups and yearly…
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Why Did We Decide Gothic Books Belong to Autumn?
Summerween is bringing ghosts, Gothic novels and dark academia into…
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Bibliotherapy: How Victorian Fiction Can Sharpen Your Attention Span in a Digital Age
Victorian fiction asks something increasingly rare of its readers: patience,…
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The Resurgence of Dark Academia: Why Modern Readers Are Obsessed with Campus Lit
Once a niche internet aesthetic, Dark Academia has become a…
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