The Grapevine by Kate Kemp review – slaughter in surburbia
In a quiet Australian backwater an unravelling cast of women make claustrophobic crime fiction out of a close-knit community
In brief: Take Care; Tilt; Lightborne – review
A rousing memoir by the wife and carer of rugby player Rob Burrow; a tender earthquake survival tale; and a queer fictionalisation of Christopher Marlowe’s remarkable life
The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan review – are we really getting sicker?
A neurologist discusses the dangers of overdiagnosing conditions from Lyme disease to ADHD in an era where technology meets pathology
Twist by Colum McCann review – globalism and a voyage into danger
A free-diving engineer repairs the undersea cables that carry data around our hyperconnected planet, in this intense maritime story with echoes of Heart of Darkness
A Squash and a Squeeze review – Donaldson and Scheffler favourite crammed with songs
Ingenious puppetry and jolly performances help animate the beloved story about an ever-expanding indoor menagerie
The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica; Dissolution by Nicholas Binge; The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar; When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi; The Foot on the Crown by Christopher Fowler
The Electric State review – Millie Bobby Brown’s bot war yarn is soulless digital content
Brown, Chris Pratt and Stanley Tucci head the human cast of this muddled and derivative adaptation of a book by Swedish sci-fi artist Simon Stålenhag
Killing Time by Alan Bennett audiobook review – quietly subversive comedy
The author narrates his darkly comic novella about lockdown life in a care home during the pandemic
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa review – favours for furikake
The narrator muses on everything from pornography to David Lynch, in this gloriously transgressive debut from Japan
A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World by Tom Phillips review – apocalypse not
A gag-filled doomscroll through the history of armageddon demonstrates that, for some, the end has always been nigh
Time Together by Luke Horton review – old friends, new tensions in this compelling study of middle age
A beach holiday is narrated by four different characters as they struggle to slough off their personal ghosts
Alive by Gabriel Weston review – a revelatory study of the body
A doctor draws on science, history, art and her own experiences to help us see human anatomy anew
Flesh by David Szalay review – brilliantly spare portrait of a man
From youthful curiosity to midlife resignation, the protagonist is buffeted by forces beyond his control in this thrilling exploration of what it means to be alive
The Antidote by Karen Russell review – a magical realist Dust Bowl tale
A ‘prairie witch’ who can remove unwanted memories is at the centre of this 1930s-set parable about climate refugees, amnesia and the ethnic cleansing of Native peoples
Mood Machine by Liz Pelly review – a savage indictment of Spotify
The global streaming behemoth has made music blander and life harder for artists, according to this enraging portrait