Reviewing ‘Typecast’ by Andrea J. Stein — I used to date a musician who wrote a lot of his songs, often drawing upon life experiences and yes, our relationship. I think this is what immediately drew me to Andrea Stein’s debut novel, Typecast. I think a lot of people love the idea of someone writing a song…

5 tips to escape your writer’s block — You’re staring at a blank page, watching that damned cursor blink over and over, but your fingers refuse to move. Or you’re forcing out sentences only to delete them moments later. You want to write, but you’re deep in a writing slump with no end in sight. So how do…

As if a box of hair dye can cure depression — You leave your breakup chat and immediately call the hairdresser on the walk home. You feel lonely and it’s stirring up that fear of abandonment, so you pull out your laptop to do some online shopping. …

Crying is only one step — Non-writers will never understand the frustration of querying agents. It’s a genuinely exhausting experience that can suck all of your passion for writing. Nothing can make you hate your own novel more than seeing rejection after rejection pile in; it’s somehow worse than editing the first draft. But it’s part…

For the days you miss your eating disorder — *The following article discusses eating disorders in detail. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, consider that this might be triggering, and visit BEAT for support* I would never want to go back to when my eating disorder controlled my life. I was absolutely miserable. My life revolved around…

It isn’t trendy, it just looks good on thin bodies — Like countless others, my time in lockdown was marked by weight gain. But my body began changing even before that, as I finally began to see food as friend rather than foe, and start severing the tie between skinny and self-worth. Adjusting to a body that’s larger than society’s preference…

Because it never really ends — When my father passed away, people kept talking about how it would get easier. They told me to keep holding on and just wait. Everyone had a different timeline of when things would supposedly be okay again; six months, a year, two years. But once again, they were wrong about…

6 tips to help you actually finish that book — In 2018, I read only five books. Last year, I read forty-seven books. This year, I hope to read over fifty, and I’m almost halfway! I have friends who read more than that, and I have a lot of friends who read less than that. The latter will often be…

How will you rate them? — I think it’s great that many readers and non-readers alike are being guided to new titles on platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram. But it must be said that a lot of the same novels come up on these review accounts, whilst other incredible reads are slipping through the cracks…