Unserious Book Reviews

June Hayward is a struggling writer whose career has the structural integrity of a damp tissue. Rather fortunately, she happens to be with Athena Liu — literary darling, national treasure, and human embodiment of “effortlessly excellent” — on the night Athena dies in a freak accident involving pancakes. June mourns appropriately for approximately three seconds before noticing Athena’s freshly completed manuscript sitting on the des...

Lord of the Flies is what happens when you give a group of schoolboys freedom, no supervision, and zero Wi-Fi. When a plane crashes on a deserted island, stranding a bunch of British boys who were presumably on their way somewhere with proper adult oversight and tea. Miraculously, no grown-ups survive. Tragically, the boys do.

They build shelters (badly), maintain a signal fire (inconsistently), and reassure the littluns that the...

Oliver Twist is the story of what happens when a very small boy makes the catastrophic error of politely asking for more food. Sweet, polite, and apparently terrifying to the adults in charge of the workhouse, they react to his request as though he’s asked for the moon, the stars, and a side of pudding.

So starts his unplanned adventure which sees him stroll to London, get arrested, rescued, kidnapped again (London was wild back the...

Eat, Pray, Love is the story of what happens when you have a perfectly respectable life on paper and decide instead to have an existential crisis with a passport.

Freshly divorced and spiritually singed, Elizabeth does what many of us consider daily but rarely commit to: she sells her belongings and embarks on a year-long journey to Italy, India, and Indonesia. Some people buy new bedding after a breakup. Elizabeth buys three intern...

The Secret History is what happens when a normal college student accidentally enrolls in Advanced Pretentious Chaos with a minor in Murder.

At first, everything seems idyllic for our small clique of students: they read ancient texts, drink expensive liquor, and behave like philosophy majors who’ve never heard the word “consequence.” Then they take their classical studies a little too seriously. In an attempt to recreate a Dionysian...

Jack Torrance, a writer with anger issues, brings his family to his winter caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, a place with more ominous vibes than a clown convention held at midnight. Fortunately, the hotel chef notices Jack’s son Danny has psychic ability – “the shining” – and casually warns him that the Overlook is full of bad leftover energy, but that he should just… avoid the scary bits. Unfortunately for them all, the hotel ...

Our 4-minute Unserious Book Review of Gone Girl, where Nick and Amy Dunne’s marriage is the literary equivalent of a beautifully wrapped present that turns out to contain a live scorpion wearing a party hat.

At first glance, they’re the perfect couple: witty, attractive, and smug in that way only fictional New Yorkers can truly master. But once they move to Missouri – where dreams go to take a long nap – things unravel faster than ...

The Talented Mr Ripley is the uplifting tale of what can happen if you combine ambition, envy, and a truly flexible sense of identity.

It moves from the United State to Italy, and Italy, naturally, is dazzling. There is sun. There is wine. There are linen shirts fluttering meaningfully in coastal breezes. Dickie Greenleaf lives in a picturesque seaside town, painting mediocre art and doing absolutely nothing productive, which Tom f...

Our 4-minute unserious book review about Charlotte Bronte's classic, Jane Eyre. The story of a woman who absolutely refuses to calm down about injustice, no matter how inconvenient itmakes things for everyone involved. A principle we could do with remembering today.

It’s a tale of a fierce governess, a reformed brooder, one extremely flammable attic, and the enduring moral that if you simply refuse to compromise your principles for ...

A 4-minute unserious review of Richard Osman's cozy mystery, The Thursday Mystery Club. Subtitle: Why knit scarves when you can unravel homicides?

Find out if we think you should view with joy that the author’s retirees face the end of life with wit, friendship, and a total disregard for rules. Or whether the writing could be seen as being stereotypical condascending crock-lit which doesn’t do justice to Osman’s clear brilliance.

F...

“With puzzles that would make a Sudoku champion roll their eyes”

Welcome to our 4-minute unserious book review of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s bestselling guide to running frantically through European tourist attractions while learning questionable art history.

Enter Robert Langdon, Harvard “symbologist,” a job that doesn’t really exist; Sophie Neveu, a French cryptographer whose main role is to explain things in an accent; and Opu...

"If you thought your last family holiday was full of drama, you clearly haven’t met the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is less a love story and more a multi-generational soap opera set in the English moors, featuring a cast of people who all desperately need therapy and maybe a long weekend at a spa."

A four-minute humorous book review of Wuthering Heights. A light-h...