Title: Sandlands
Author: Rosy Thornton
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 266
Rating: 8/10
Rosy Thornton – Sandlands
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.
This was an interesting book to read and review, because it’s a contemporary collection of short stories that reads like a modern classic. The stories here cover all sorts of subjects, from the trivial to the sublime, and they’re all subtly linked together by the landscape.
It’s interesting, because the stories themselves are almost like parables or mini metaphors, and I think it’d take me a couple of re-reads to get the most out of the book. That said, even on the first read, you get a great idea of the way that the different stories are interlinked, and you start to notice certain elements, like the pub called The Ship, that are repeated throughout the book.
In many ways, it reminds me of Tales of Blood and Sulphur, a collection of horror shorts by J. G. Clay, a friend of mine and a fellow writer. His work is the same, in that the central stories are all interlinked; that said, they’re written in very different styles, and that would be like comparing Stephen King to Ernest Hemingway.
Thornton is the Hemingway, and there’s something about her style that really does remind me of the old man’s writing. It’s good to see that new writers are still putting work out there like this, which has a lot of fun with language whilst simultaneously making the reader think about what they’re actually reading.
Rosy Thornton
