Review of No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby
28 and unmarried, Violet Hamilton is worrying her father. It is 1896 after all, and an independent woman is a dangerous thing to be. But...
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Review Archive
Here you can find all of our past book reviews.
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson
Nora Hughes is a 20-something editorial assistant; underappreciated, overworked and underpaid. When Parsons Press starts making cuts, she...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of The Grooms Wore White by Charlie Lyndhurst
In Love, Actually style, Charlie Lyndhurst's debut follows interwoven characters on their journeys through love, whether it be falling in...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking by Marianne Eloise
Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is a memoir from Marianne Eloise that gives an insight into neurodiversity with honesty and humor....
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Salt & Metal by Sallyanne Rock
Salt & Metal is Sallyanne Rock's debut poetry pamphlet exploring themes of domestic abuse. It's a visceral collection that confronts the...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of None of This is Serious by Catherine Prasifka
None of This is Serious is set in Dublin and follows recent graduate Sophie as she navigates life after university. Sophie's friends all...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Starling by Sarah Jane Butler
Starling has lived her entire life in a van with her mother. Travelling from place to place, living off the land and rejecting modern...
thedebutdigest
2 min read
Review of When Things are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent
his is the story of two sisters. First, Harper, a writer with an endless appreciation for life, living with what she calls the 'Up...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of The Doloriad by Missouri Williams
Set in the aftermath of a vague and unknown environmental disaster, The Doloriad follows a family living on the edge of a ruined city,...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Reptile Memoirs by Silje Ulstein
Reptile Memoirs is a Norwegian crime debut by Silje Ulstein, translated by Alison McCullough. A tale of family secrets and the legacy of...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob Kerr
Set in 1960s English countryside, this is a novel of folktale perfect for the Halloween season. Izzy's Geordie family move into Eshwood...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Peach Pig by Cecilia Knapp
This poetry collection is one of the most candid I've read in a while. Cecilia Knapp is raw and unflinching in this debut. On one page...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of An Indigo Summer by Ellie Evelyn Orrell
Set in North Wales, this is a memoir of Ellie Evelyn Orrell's return home to practice indigo dyeing with her mother in late summer. The...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Can I Stray by Jenna Adams
This is a story told in 3 acts. In act one, we meet Brooke at 14 and Matt at 17. They are cast side by side as Romeo and Juliet and their...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Orpheus Builds A Girl by Heather Parry
Dr Wilhelm von Tore is a depraved Nazi doctor forced to leave Germany after WW2 ends. Luciana is a young Cuban immigrant to America...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of The Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse
Set in a near future where global warming and pathogenic viruses have caused society to unravel, Mosse imagines a dystopia not so far...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Salmacis: Becoming Not Quite a Woman by Elizabeth Train-Brown
From divine to demonic, this debut poetry collection is full of myth and metaphor. Inspired by Ovid’s tales, Train-Brown draws upon the...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of The Hive by Scarlett Brade
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. In this debut thriller, protagonist Charlotte plans to take the ultimate revenge on her...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan
Sreenath is from a traditional Indian family so when he and his girlfriend are unknowingly filmed having sex and the clip ends up on a...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel
In this debut, Sheena Patel uses a single speaker to examine the tenderness and the cruelty of human behaviour. Our unlikeable narrator...
thedebutdigest
1 min read
Review of Watching Women and Girls by Danielle Pender
Danielle Pender's debut short story collection examines how women and girls are looked at, and how the ways in which we are observed and...
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