Man With A Seagull On His Head, Harriet Paige, West Yorkshire: Bluemoose Books Ltd., 2017, 160
When Ray Eccles is struck on the head by a dying bird in 1970s Essex, the transformation in his world is unforeseeable. Harriet Paige’s debut novel is more about emotions and the impact of life changes rather than what causes them; when protagonist Jennifer Mulholland is presented with her husband’s ashes, she feels “nothing but shame and regret.” But Paige’s colloquial prose unfurls so that however highfalutin certain plot aspects might be, characters’ perspectives are distinct and very little gets lost in translation.
Certain plot points are slow, but by the time of the novel’s denouement, Paige has proficiently examined the ways in which love and identity can be either realised or destroyed by art.
4/5
Exopod, Joe Gillespie, Bristol: Arkbound Publishing, 2017
A woman is pulled into the sky by a vicious alien life form at a village fete and it is captured on camera for the first time. So here begins Joe Gillespie’s third novel Exopod, and it progresses as an exhilarating voyage through consistently vivid attacks and modern science. As expected, Gillespie’s narrative is rooted in the relationship between humanity and outer space, but the detail and imagination with which he writes about the elements of both ensures that the pace is unswerving and the depth at which humans interact with each other is always relatable.
Exopod uses a back-to-basics and down-to-earth sensibility to create perennially intriguing and gripping reading.
