Not sure which option to go for? Here's a quick mini review of our featured books for March's Paperback Down Subscription Box to help you out.
Local Voices: The Raptures, by Jan Carson
What’s the craic?
It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other.
As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and chaos. Hannah is haunted by guilt as she remains healthy while her friends are struck down. For others, tempers simmer, panic escalates and long-buried secrets threaten to emerge.
Bursting with Carson's trademark wit, profound empathy and soaring imagination, The Raptures explores how tragedy can unite a small community - and tear it apart.
Paperback Down says…
If you're in any way familiar with 1990s Northern Ireland, there'll be so many moments in this wonderful book that will have you nodding along and saying 'yep'. My first laugh-out-loud moment came on page 3 and the second just a paragraph later - although oftentimes unbearably tragic, you'll be completely engrossed by Jan Carson's warm and witty observations of growing up in a small insular village community in the early 90s.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
What’s the craic?
A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
But right now, he doesn't know that. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time, and he's just woken to find himself hurtling through space, millions of miles from home. It's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery and he's got to do it alone... Or does he?
Paperback Down says…
Witty banter, aliens, science and the potential end of the world - this book ticks a lot of boxes. A fair few bookstagram reviews of it tend to start with "I don't normally read SFF but I loved this.." and you'll find yourself in full agreement. It is, at it's core, about an unlikely and unanticipated friendship and it's Andy Weir's beautifully written characters which will hook you in and keep you up at night to see how it all ends.
Bucket List Books: Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
What’s the craic?
Working as a lady's companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .
Paperback Down says..
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."
Daphne du Maurier's classic psychological thriller has never gone out of print since it's publication in 1938 - and for good reason. From it's iconic opening sentence, there's a haunting dream-like quality throughout Rebecca and yet it's filled with moments of high drama, tension and plot twists. Definitely one to tick off your bucket list!