Notes from The Commute

Reviews of The Work, Kindred, Seven Ancient Wonders and more

I can count all the books I read last year on one hand. I used to be someone who read non-stop but over the years I’ve become slowly and steadily bad at reading.

At some point, I fell out of the habit and couldn’t get back into the swing of things. But this year is different because I started to read on my commute to work.

I’m lucky that I have a relatively short commute, about half an hour on the tram, but with travelling to and from work it means that I can get an hour of reading done in a day. A younger me would have scoffed at the idea. Only an hour? That’s nothing.

But now I know how precious each hour of reading is.

A whole hour just to read?? Bliss.

So welcome to a new series for Verse: Notes from the Commute. Short, sharp reviews of what I’ve been reading on my way to work. Maybe you’ll find your next read? Maybe you’ll realise what you want to avoid.

Either way - let’s dive in.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia is a master of science fiction and her ability to craft a story has become incredibly inspiring to me as a writer. The story follows an african-american woman, Dana, who finds herself accidentally teleporting from 1976 Los Angeles to a 19th century plantation.

Dana does what she can to survive life as a slave on the plantation until she can find her way home again. It’s confronting to read about a horrible period of history, particularly as Dana comes to terms with the real danger that she’s in. But Octavia doesn’t shy away from that and delivers a powerful book that I think will stay with me for a long time.

Bunny by Mona Awad

Bunny is a wild ride of a book. It’s a story that you can’t really explain (which is great for a review series) but you really have to experience it for yourself.

Here’s a succinct review of my time reading it:

This is great > I’m loving this > Wait, what?

I had to talk to a few people about the ending because, without spoiling anything, I got very confused. But! I did enjoy it. It’s set on a college campus and I’d describe it as literary fiction with fantasy elements. There’s also some scarily accurate portrayals of what creative writing workshops can feel like. If you’ve been interested in the ‘dark academia’ trend of fiction, it’s well worth a read.

The Work by Bri Lee

The Work is the fiction debut from

Bri Lee

that I was very excited to read and it certainly did not disappoint! The Work goes between two characters, Pat and Lally, who are both in the arts scene on opposite sides of the world.

I really enjoyed this one and how Bri navigates the same world from different perspectives of age, gender and power. There’s a lot of art chat which I didn’t think would be for me and yet, loved it! It’s more contemporary literary fiction than some of my other reads on the commute but that didn’t stop me racing through it.

Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly

This may be considered cheating but I’ve read Seven Ancient Wonders before. Back when it was first released in 2005 - almost twenty years ago - I began the Jack West Jr series. I remember it being lots of fun, action-packed and full of conspiracy. It was exactly what I wanted.

The pace of this book is insane. So much happens in days that you need to not think too much about how time works but it’s a wild ride across the globe and bestills my Indiana-Jones-loving heart.

I never finished the series when it first came out and I plan to keep reading about Jack West Jr and his adventures. It feels like stretching my imaginative muscles - a lot of fun.

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

I wouldn’t say that I’m the president of the Leigh Bardugo fan club (she has a lot fans) but I’m a proud certified member. I always love the way the Leigh builds the worlds of her stories and creates great characters.

Hell Bent is the sequel to Ninth House and continues to follow Alex Stern and her life at Yale as a member of Lethe, a secret society that specialises in containing the paranormal. The story picks up right where Ninth House left off as Alex and her friends try to break Darlington out of purgatory.

For my literary needs right now it’s: tick, tick, tick. Dark academia, a bit of occult and straight Leigh Bardugo greatness - what more do you need?

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

Garth Nix will always hold a special place in my heart because of Sabriel and the Old Kingdom series. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is another fun read that is full of brilliant world building.

It follows a young woman who discovers the magical world that lives within the London we know. As she tries to find her father, she encounters a secret society of booksellers that act like magical police and together they go on a whirlwind adventure.

The cynical adult in me found it hard to connect with the younger protagonist at first but then once the story got going it was very heartening. The book is full of humour and I’m keen to read the next one: The Sinister Booksellers of Bath.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

I love a story that follows two different characters that ultimately connect together. Mark Lawrence does such a good job at this in The Book That Wouldn’t Burn. It’s two different characters and timelines that sync up in an expected way. I timed my read well in that the sequel is already out and I’m powering through that but I think the blurb is the best way to tell you to read this:

A boy has lived his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities. A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and noone goes. The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

I mean, come onnnn - so great.

Babel by R.F Kuang

Babel has been my favourite book that I’ve read this year (so far).

The magic system is centred around language, the etymology of words and the connection between different translations. It’s very nerdy stuff but handled with an openness that made it wonderful to read. Kuang also does such a great job at writing really personable characters that you can connect with. Even the side characters feel real and affecting. Not to mention that she uses the fantasy world to highlight very real transgressions from our own.

It’s another dark academia book but very different to Bunny. It’s a historical fantasy epic (it’s really thick) but I could have read another 300 pages of it.

Notes from The Commute is a new review series from Verse, the home of great speculative fiction.

Thorne: The Withering Shore is the latest fiction project for Verse. Make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss a sentence.