Lovely . . . Made me long for a long hot summer by the sea with friends and family. I loved that new beginnings turn up when you least expect them.

Warm summer reading

Reading Bodies is a physical experience. The malignant humour is relentless

Buy it. Borrow it. Read it

A cracking novel

Funny, scary and unputdownable

At Scholomance, monsters are everywhere and the breakfast might kill you, but the wonderful cast of characters will grab a hold of your heart and you’ll never want to leave this deadly school. Naomi Novik skillfully combines sharp humor with layers of imagination to build a fantasy that delights on every level. I loved this brilliant book.

Hilarious and wild! Take any fictional magic school, make it as over-the-top dangerous as possible, and populate it with a bunch of snarky teenagers; the result is pure batshit fun.

Sharp, witty, and darkly effervescent, A Deadly Education is Naomi Novik’s fresh take on the concept of the magic school. One of my favorite reads of the year.

A Deadly Education plunges into the delightfully brutal world of the Scholomance, a magic school unlike anything you've ever seen before, and introduces El, a practical, ruthless heroine with the guts and wits to survive it. Naomi Novik has crafted a transcendent academic fantasy that pulls no punches.

Naomi Novik reinvents the magical school story by working a strange, funny, wild, dark magic all her own. This is not just your next great read - it's your new obsession.

Novik is a master at setting up a plot to unfurl in a series of staggeringly well-thought out bursts of action, weaving together into an imaginative climax.

A Deadly Education is a book that lives up to its gob smacker of an opening sentence and follows right through to its shocker of an ending that promises more to come. Naomi Novik is relentlessly innovative and entertaining

Fresh, smart, and delightfully unique. It's Hogwarts with higher stakes and sharper claws, and I absolutely loved it.

The author's most entertaining novel to date

Fun and beautifully written

A story that never stops moving while always remaining focused on developing the characters of both the people and the school itself

Mohamed is . . . intent on expanding her world, listing its teeming varieties and presenting a wealth of character and language

Evocative and enlightening

Heaving with life . . . The Fortune Men excavates the forgotten reaches of British colonial history . . . The purposeful detail is an implicit corrective to all the times when the lives of people like Mattan have not been considered at all

A moving work

Nadifa Mohamed's richly evocative novel paints a vivid picture of life in this notorious neighbourhood as she visits a forgotten miscarriage of justice

[Mohamed] creates an intriguing snapshot of an era and a complex main character you can't help but root for

It's unbearably wrenching . . . Mohamed makes the outrage at the book's heart blazingly unignorable by inhabiting Mattan's point of view, a bold endeavour pulled off to powerful effect. Passages from the barbaric climax are still echoing in my head, even as I type

Just as Half of a Yellow Sun drew out the little documented dramas of the Biafran war, Mohamed describes an East Africa under Mussolini's rule . . . such an accomplished first novel

A first novel of elegance and beauty... a stunning debut

A haunting and intimate portrait of the lives of women in war-torn Somalia

Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, this is a significant, affecting book

With the unadorned language of a wise, clear-eyed observer, Nadifa Mohamed has spun an unforgettable tale

A moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed's stature as one of Britain's best young novelists

Mesmerising

Mackintosh poses urgent questions about social expectations and free will that are relevant to all realities

Heartbreaking but redemptive, and lightened by French's trademark humour, this is a compelling read that will keep you poised between laughter and tears

A tantalising story of motherhood told with Dawn French's signature warmth

As ever, even in the darkest of times, Dawn has found humour to inject into her novel

A brilliant book

The life-affirming and unmissable new novel

A tale told with warmth

While Dawn French's latest novel contains a dash of humour, it's also heart-wrenching

A fabulous emotional tearjerker of a novel

Praise for Dawn French

Hilarious and brilliant

I adored According to YES. It's so different to anything I've read in forever, so charming, wise, brilliantly written. I loved it all

Witty and wise, it'll have you burning the midnight oil. A cracker

Very funny and packs an emotional clout. Brilliant!

An enlightening and feel-good read offering a fresh look at life and how to embrace it. Funny and enjoyable to the end

There is lots of fun to be had reading this book. It's impossible not to warm to Rosie, a funny and open-hearted woman who acts as a salve and comfort blanket for this unhappy, inhibited family. There's something quite joyous about the way she unashamedly romps her way through the novel, changing the lives of those around her for the better

Another hilarious novel!

French can spin a yarn . . . which sets According to YES apart. Think the vicar of Dibley, without the dog collar. YES YES YES indeed

Wise and poignant

Heart-warming