I would have rated this one 5 out of 5, were it not for the section of James' backstory. I felt that it really took you out of the story. Even the part where it weny back to Mrs Hill did that a bit, but was more necessary to the context. I just really enjoyed Sarah's voice and would have preferre...
Sweat ran down my skin like the tiny brush of moths’ feet. People dressed in pale robes, in coats and britches, in brightly-coloured evanescent gowns were passing before me. Some had skin the same weather-stained brown as my own, others were as fair as milk, still others as dark as the slaves I’d...
He climbs the creaking stairs. The wind rattles the shutters against their latches. He has Shem’s old coat on, a muffler drawn up over his mouth and nose and dampened by his breath. The upstairs room swells wide and dim, slope-ceilinged, with a window in each gable. There is a bedstead, an armoir...
She turned, hesitated on the doorstep. She would have to go back to Grainne’s house now. She felt stomach acid rise at the back of her throat, swallowed it down. Fuck. She looked up and down the street. Dark windows, neat gardens, cars tucked into the kerb. This could be anywhere in Belfast. This...
Just a motorway exit, a railway station, a grimy, busy crossroads with traffic thundering through. Dirty great lorries and 4x4s and car after car after car. No one stopped. I waited at the traffic lights, looking down the curved slope of the high street. A greengrocer’s, an off-licence, a post of...
AMELIA LIFTS THE BLACKOUT CARDBOARD from the window. The sunshine makes her blink and frown. Today is another day without Billy. Today is another day in which something terrible might happen to him. Today is another day to get through in the hopes of better days to come. She rubs at her eyes. Bel...