Episodic – DaneCobain.com

Title: Mill Girl

Author: Sue Reid

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 224

Rating: 3.5/5

I read this book because it came with a whole bunch of others that I bought as a job lot on eBay. It stood out because it’s part of a Scholastic line that focusses on historical fiction, and it’s also pretty cool because it takes the form of a diary.

We’ve got a young female protagonist living in Victorian Manchester and who works in a Mill, and so you know going in that she’s going to have a pretty tough life. At the same time, the book’s clearly aimed at younger readers and so there’s nothing here that’s so intense that it would stop a parent from reading it to their kids.

But to be honest, the point here is more to educate kids about what it was like back in the day, and I think it does a pretty good job of that. Even though it’s written the way it is, in an episodic format based on diary entries, the author actually manages to do an impressive job of worldbuilding, and so it’s easy to feel as though you can smell the city.

Plus I’m originally from the Midlands, which makes me an honourary northerner. I was always going to like it. A nice find!

Learn more about Mill Girl.

William Burroughs – Port of Saints | Review

Title: Port of Saints

Author: William Burroughs

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 174

Rating: 6/10

William Burroughs – Port of Saints

Port of Saints is one of Burroughs’ shorter, slightly less experimental stories – it’s easier on the brain than his other work, but it’s still not exactly light reading. Interestingly enough, Port of Saints is pivotal in that it’s the meeting point between many of his earlier characters and a whole host of new characters who were to reappear in later books.

Like many other Burroughs novels, the narrative is episodic, presented in the form of multiple plot-lines which coexist and shuffle together, so that half of the time you’re not even sure which story-line you’re dealing with. Not that that matters – Burroughs work is avant-garde and experimental, and the isolated chapters allow you a quick glimpse in to the hellish dystopia that plagued the writer’s junkie imagination.

While it’s short and sweet, Port of Saints probably isn’t the best starting point for someone that’s new to Burroughs – start with Naked Lunch instead, perhaps.