The Half Sister by Sandie Jones

A knock at the door during a normal Sunday lunch changes everything for sisters Kate and Lauren. On the other side of the door is their half sister, Jess, looking for answers about the family she never knew. Told through dual narratives, this book is a compelling read and has a lot of potential. However, it is let down by the slow pacing during the first half, which sees the story get bogged down in a lot of unnecessary details and sub-plots that don’t add much to the main narrative. Things pick up in the second half, as it races towards the somewhat inevitable conclusion. The end comes too soon, and there has not been enough backstory to make it feel believable or satisfying. The Half Sister is a domestic suspense thriller, but perhaps could be better described as a light family drama, as it lacks the heart-racing hook of a thriller.

6/10

The Art of Political Storytelling by Philip Seargeant

Subtitled Why Stories Win Votes in Post-Truth Politics, this book by a language and communication expert tries to explain one of the great quandaries of our age – why reason and logic fail to win out over emotion and “truthiness” in political discourse. The answer, argues Seargeant, is stories. Successful recent political initiatives, such as the election of Donald Trump and the winning Brexit vote, packaged their causes as powerfully simple but highly adaptable narratives that plug into age-old templates and carry further into the electorate’s consciousness than careful argument or detailed analysis of the facts. No doubt it was ever thus, to some extent, but this survey of the toolbox of the political storyteller – from deep structure to rhetorical style to the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, with a nod to key story theorists like Aristotle, Syd Field and Joseph Campbell – goes a long way to account for the recent successes of provocative populist leaders around the world.

7/10

Wonderscape by Jennifer Bell

Jennifer Bell, author of the international bestseller The Uncommoners: The Crooked Sixpence, has worked her magic again with this fantastic sci-fi offering. It starts with a bang: while on their way to school, Arthur, Cecily and Ren are accidentally sucked through a portal into an in-reality adventure game called Wonderscape, which exists in the year 2473. The game, and the future, offer plenty of opportunities for otherworldliness, which Bell takes full advantage of. What makes this book stand out is its casual references to scientific concepts such as nanotechnology and cryptocurrency, as well as its celebration of humanity’s heroes, including Newton, Edison and Wangari Maathai, who are cast as characters in the game. Bell does this with such finesse that the story never feels like a history or science lesson in disguise. All in, this is a fun-filled, characterdriven, fast-paced, vibrant story and it will almost certainly win both hearts and minds.

9/10