What’s on our shelves: Bridget Jones, Captain America, convents and shoegazing

A feature I’ve noticed in many books that draw my attention is the separation of genders, whether through religion (see here and Matrix by Groff), post-apocalyptic happenstance (see I Who Have Never Known Men by Harpman), the aftermath of a disaster (see The Furies by Lowe), or vocation (see Mercia’s Take by Wiles or The Miner by Sōseki). So, when I was gifted this 20th-century historic fiction novel set in a Benedictine convent in medieval England, I knew I was in for something great!

Spanning a couple of hundred years starting in the 12th century, the convent continues with its rites, traditions and duties disrupted frequently by death, vice, intrigue and bickering, against a backdrop of plague, protests, and a changing role for religion. Published in 1948, and I’m sure that a more thorough analysis would yield many themes and parallels drawn from the contemporary context of its writing, there were many passages or situations that felt like they could have been written yesterday. There are a lot of characters, which did get confusing at times, but they’re distinct and interestingly cast.

I really enjoyed this book, and will be keeping hold of it for a future re-read.

I picked this book up in the local library, with a vague recollection of reading a review for it somewhere that had interested me. The basic plot is around couples competing in a reality TV show to raise a Metaverse baby to adulthood within 9 months, with the winning couple’s prize being to keep their Metaverse child or trading it for cash and the resources to have a child in the Real World™.

I did not enjoy this book at all. I think I only finished it for the sake of reviewing it, and now I’m only reviewing it due to the fact that I’d forced myself through finishing it.

The writing and characterisation are explicitly ‘written-for-a-Netflix-series’. It’s set in the not too distant future and refers to King William and Pope John Paul III, whilst also still using ‘bae’ unironically as a term of endearment as well as using USB cables. I physically cringed at many points throughout, pulling me from a plot that could, with very different treatment, have been an interesting look at the ethics and abuse of AI, VR and reality TV. To paraphrase the infamous Peter Marsh, this book had all of the grace and subtlety of a reversing dump truck.

Don’t read. Maybe watch the inevitable limited series on Netflix.

Lauren Purton, Marketing Executive – PTFS Europe

7.5 / 10 – Brill
If, like myself, you missed the shoegaze revival of the 00s through not being on MySpace, you may have missed out on two-piece Fight Bite formed of Leanne Macomber and Geoffrey Louis. Little information about the group remains, the cleansing lotion of time seems to have erased any reliable information, only a few fan photos and a Pitchfork review remains.

The group’s first album, Emerald Eyes, was released in 2008 and became a MySpace favourite. In 2012, their eponymous album was self-released and acted as a spiritual, as well as practical, successor to Emerald Eyes.

Louis provides a terse synthesised sound comparable to contemporaries such as Beach House and Still Corners, but at a much more lackadaisical pace – though never so slow as to completely lose your interest. Macomber follows up on Louis with an almost ghostly vocal that rarely breaks over the barrier of a whisper, yet still manages to compete with the rest of the soundscape for your attention.

Tracks 1–3 set the scene for the album, with the lead single and first track “Catiline” being my favourite of the entire album. It features a gentle, ethereal performance from both musicians – Louis’ synth rising to perfectly match Macomber’s voice in the chorus. Shoegaze always has a knack of emphasising my emotion at a given moment; if I’m sad, it makes me sadder, and if I’m joyous, it makes me swell. “Catiline” perfectly encapsulates that state of being, and I’d argue belongs in league with Glasvegas’ “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry”.

Track 3, “Charlotte Iris”, is more bombastic than the prior pieces, pleasant with spiriting notes and vocals. Track 4, “Nancy”, offers some respite from the drone of shoegaze, and acts as a reflexion point in the album’s journey. Its shortness forbids the listener from resting for too long, which feels a shame in many ways.
The middle of the album continues along similar themes, but offers little in terms of memorable pieces. I think this needs to be considered in the context of the genre – shoegaze is famously prone to repetitiveness within consolidated works like albums. Still, a change, or injection, of pace might’ve alleviated this somewhat (not that I’m a classically trained musician, I must add).

Track 9, “Queen Anne”, is where my ears prick up once more. The track starts at a familiarly sedentary pace, but the change in tonality halfway through immediately stirs my emotion. Macomber is stellar on this track, partially obscured by what I can only describe as audio fog. This is the only track that stirred my tear ducts on the album; make of this what you will.

Track 10, “Charlotte Pluie”, is our journey’s end. The only track on the album to start with anything describable as aggressive tempo, which works to bring the album to a head. It was only whilst listening to this track for this review that I noticed the Charlottes are sisters! Track 10 is a sped up version of Track 3. At first, this disappointed me, but honestly, I can’t help but admire how clever Fight Bite were in making the exact same tune sound totally different just by adjusting the tempo.

If you’re a fan of shoegaze, or dream pop genres more widely, this is definitely worth a listen. As a standalone album, it had flaws, especially in the middle phase, but some tracks on the album could easily be played alongside aforementioned contemporaries of the art and make a name for themselves. If only Louis and Macomber had held together long enough.