REVIEWS Fiction

GHOST LOVER

By Lisa Taddeo, Bloomsbury Circus, £16.99 (ebook £11.89)

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Ghost Lover is a compilation of short stories from Lisa Taddeo, with each of the nine tales exploring an aspect of women’s sexuality. It looks at modern relationships – where a text forwarding service takes the anguish out of conversing with your wannabe love, to using sex to exert dominion over your target in ‘Maid Marian’. The dark story of Grace Magorian is equally twisty and heartbreaking.

Every tale has a satisfying conclusion. The power of the short story is used well here, to ramp up the desperation and intensity of infatuation, love and grief. Ghost Lover will be a perfect companion on the sun lounger this summer when you need a good read, but the concentration is waning for a long story.

LAPVONA

By Ottessa Moshfegh, Jonathan Cape, £14.99 (ebook £9.99)

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Lapvona is the latest novel from the writer of 2018’s wildly popular My Year Of Rest And Relaxation. This folk horror story represents quite the departure from her usual style; Moshfegh wrote this during the pandemic, to keep her sane. It is about the fictional medieval village of Lapvona, with the

motherless Marek as the central character.

It is full of corruption, religion and depravity, and focuses on the cruelness of society and its people. The novel is split into chapters based on the seasons, beginning with the Easter slaughter, and as the seasons pass, a plague spreads through the village.

It is weird, unsettling and exciting, and Moshfegh writes like a dream – or nightmare?