Veronica Roth has well and truly broken out of her YA phase with some recent releases that challenge genre tropes, like Poster Girl and Chosen Ones. Her latest novella When Among Crows is more down the line urban fantasy but is no less enjoyable. In it, Roth draws on the mythology of Poland and its…
Symbolic contrasts abound within The Curators’ stylish production of Angela Betzien’s Children of the Black Skirt, starting from its initial folly of youthful frolic and then soon-after stark at-attention responses of children in-fear. This establishes both the aesthetic sophistication and the narrative premise of the now-iconic work which is set in an abandoned orphanage that…
German author Mariana Leky’s latest novel What You Can See From Here (translated by Tess Lewis) falls into an almost fairytale style. Set in a small German village peopled by a range of eccentric characters, it uses some old story telling ideas to build a tale of tragedy, compassion and unrequited love. And it does…
One of the world’s most inventive filmmakers produces one of the year’s most inventive films in The Shape of Water. This vivid fantasy from Guillermo del Toro is both a loving homage to cinema and an engrossing tale in its own right. From his first feature, Cronos, del Toro has been fascinated by monsters of one…
– With a bullet hole through your neck, numbskull of yours never looked so fine. – Rest in peace Daddy numbskull. – Ta ta Daddy ya sick bundle of shit. – Bye bye Daddy you misery heap of shit. […] – Girls, I think your father is dead. – I knocked his knees out. –…
