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It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of the teenage wizard and the seven increasingly lengthy stories that featured him. Published between 1997 and 2007, the books were the defining pieces of literature for a whole generation of young people. The stories, which tell of Harry, an orphan who grows up without knowing he has […]

Katniss Everdeen lives in a post-apocalyptic version of the USA, where inhabitants’ movements are restricted to the districts in which they were born. Condemned to a life of hard work, Katniss works hard to feed her family. However, when her name is pulled from a hat, she is chosen as a participant in the Hunger […]

Described as ‘Die Hard, with fairies’, the Artemis Fowl series is an incredible mix of James Bond-style gadgets, violence, crime and humour. Artemis is a twelve-year-old genius determined to earn lots of money and become a super-villain. After he captures a fairy to hold for ransom, he engages in an increasingly dangerous battle of wits. […]

Whilst for some, this might seem like a fairly controversial choice, the incredible popularity that the Twilight saga (both films and books) has had over the years means that it has to feature somewhere on our list! Protagonist Bella moves to a new city, where she falls in love with a gorgeous yet mysterious boy […]

This series by Lemony Snicket, of thirteen novels for older children or young teens follows the lives of three orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, from the moment they become orphans. Written in a mock-gothic style, the novels are full of wit and darkness. The narrator, Lemony Snicket, plays an important role in the stories, […]

This Percy Jackon and the Olympians series came about when the author Rick Riordan’s son requested yet another bedtime story based on the Ancient Greek myths. This collection of books has been a huge hit with everyone from primary school upwards. The stories follow the life of Percy Jackson, a demi-god and son of Poseidon. […]

The Mortal Engines series, by Philip Reeve, is a futuristic dystopia, set in a post-apocalyptic world where people live in large cities and travel around consuming one another in a bid to win increasingly scarce resources. Whilst science fiction isn’t for everyone, these stories work as a parable for modern times and our environmental battle […]

C S Lewis, a writer and theologian, is best known for his cherished children’s classics, the Chronicles of Narnia. Set in a magical parallel universe, the series follows several children who discover Narnia, where animals talk and Aslan, the mighty lion, is the ruler of them all. The stories deal with themes like trust, faith, […]

Written largely during the Second World War, The Lord of the Rings is, as a trilogy, one of the best-selling books of all time. Originally written as a follow-up to Tolkien’s children’s novel, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings tells the tale of Frodo Baggins and his companions as they seek to destroy a magic […]

Animal Farm is a book, which, many would think is about animals on a farm, however, the message is far more advanced. The short answer is that it is about the dangers of communism. Animal Farm is aimed at 13+ but can be read by any age. The farm is run by Farmer Jones, but […]

The Bunker Diary is written by British author Kevin Brooks. It was published in 2013. Many people wanted it banned for its disturbing themes and dark plot. However, in 2014 it won the Carnegie Medal. Plot We follow 16-year-old Linnus as he writes about his experience in a diary. One day he was walking along […]

This amazing murder mystery thriller is written by British writer Holly Jackson. It is an extremely enjoyable read. If you love thrilling and exhilarating books that keep you up at night desperate to know what happens next, this book will be right up your street. What’s more, there are 2 other books in the series […]

Soapbox Racer is a brilliant, contemporary play, currently on at the Alphabetti fringe theatre. It follows Kay (Harrison Rowley-Lynn), an air-headed, but well-meaning, teen in her wild attempt to win her ex-boyfriend back. Throughout the play, she builds a soapbox covered in the “love doodles” Rory, the aforementioned ex, gifted her, and plans to win […]

‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ is written by Taylor Jenkins Reid and is easily considered to be one of the best ‘booktok’ books. It is filled with plot twists and some unexpected moments. It is filled with characters who are made to be hateable and characters who are made to be likeable. It is […]

1914. The world stands on the edge of change. But women still have no vote. Evelyn is rich and clever, but she isn’t allowed to go to university. Life is set out for her, but Evelyn wants freedom and choice, even if it means paying the highest price alongside her fellow Suffragettes. Meanwhile, May campaigns […]

Beyoncé needs no introduction. Her very name inspires sheer inspiration amongst everyone. And just when we needed her the most, she returned and shook the whole world to its core. Act One of Renaissance certainly sets the tone for the album – a revival and rebirth of ballroom music of the 70s and 80s combined […]

Bolu Babalola had me hooked with Love in Colour in 2020, a beautiful anthology of love stories and she came back in 2022 with a fun romantic novel that I pre-ordered the first chance I could get. Honey & Spice revolves around Kiki and Malakai, two students at Whitehall university, a fictional British university. Kiki […]

Former Disney star Sabrina Carpenter dropped her highly-anticipated fifth studio album, emails i can’t send, earlier this month –  and it’s arguably her best (and most personal) work yet. Carpenter began her career as a child star, with her breakthrough role on Girl Meets World catapulting her into the limelight. The pop princess is no stranger to […]

Graham Norton’s debut novel Holding attracted significant media attention and glowing reviews. Most likely because Graham Norton of The Graham Norton Show wrote a fiction crime novel. Presumably most reviewers would have liked to slate it for some kind of self-gratifying purpose. I hate it when celebrities get book deals. Half of them can’t write; it’s never usually because […]

When Charlotte Brontë called her sister Anne’s book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a “mistake” and prevented it from being published for ten years, I do think she was being rather severe. Anne Brontë’s second novel is not the masterpiece Jane Eyre is or Wuthering Heights. I am hesitant to call it a masterpiece at all, but there are […]

Did you love the first Dr Strange and long for a sequel? Were you left wondering what happened beyond the end of WandaVision? Do you consider whether there really is a multiverse? You can get all three answers in just two action-packed and thrilling hours. Dr Strange, played by multiple-award-winning actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, casts a […]

Daisy Jones and The Six is the story of fictional musicians in the seventies. And I very much recommend this book to anyone in a slump or wanting to procrastinate before exams (like me!) Written in interview snippets we, learn the ups and downs, the good and bad of how the band was formed. There […]

For many, The Troubles in Ireland and their peak in the 1960s remain unknown and unspoken. The atrocities committed by the British in border counties like Fermanagh, Derry and cities like Belfast still affect Irish society today; with areas separated by ‘peace walls’ between Protestant and Catholic communities to prohibit further tensions. Despite the Good […]

Prince’s debut album, For You, gets overlooked as it doesn’t have the progressive rock and synth-pop fusion his later works have, like Purple Rain, or 1999. However, at 19, Prince engineered this entire album on his own and demonstrated his immense musical talents from the start. The titular song on the album, For You, kicks […]

Mhairi McFarlane’s 2020 novel If I Never Met You has been on my ‘to be read‘ list for a while – and I am so happy that I finally got around to it. The story revolves around thirty-six-year-old Laurie. She’s a lawyer, one of the best at her firm. Her partner, Dan, dumps her after […]

Dearest readers, welcome back. Bridgerton series two is out now and if you’re anything like me, you’ll have spent eight hours in bed binge-watching before allowing it to consume your being. (Ha, see what I did there…) If you didn’t do that – worry not, there’s plenty to look forward to. And plenty to think […]

The Killers’ latest album Pressure Machine was released August 2021, so soon after their 2020 release Imploding the Mirage. A concept album and ode to frontman Brandon Flowers’ hometown of Nephi, Utah— the ‘Mormon capital’ of the USA— the track serves stories of different people from the town in flash recordings at the beginning and […]

I love a good Netflix documentary – true crime is a guilty pleasure and this one will have you yelling at the screen. The Tinder Swindler tells the story of Shimon Hayut, who used the name, Simon Leviev, a conman who seduced women on Tinder and conned them out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. […]

On the 14th of January, Netflix released Ricky Gervais’ much anticipated third season of After Life. With the first two seasons of After Life becoming extremely popular among Netflix users, does season three live up to the hype surrounding its release? Featuring six new episodes, After Life continues to explore Ricky Gervais’ Tony Johnson as he […]

A Monster Calls is one of the most renowned books of the 21st century. Patrick Ness, its author and flame-carrier, is just as renowned. There is a reason for that. A Monster Calls is one of the most moving, brilliantly executed, and informative novels I’ve read in a while. I’m possibly too old to be considered the target […]

The Color Purple feels strange to write in American English. It would feel somehow wrong and a disservice to such a touching, thoughtful, and pure novel to add that “u” into the title, though. So, I won’t. Alice Walker’s writing is uniquely American, in the same way that Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird carries that […]

The long-awaited third instalment of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, No Way Home, has exceeded all expectations. Starring alongside Holland is Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and Benedict Cumberbatch, with Marvel allowing audiences to fall further in love with their favourite characters. No Way Home follows on from the 2019 release Far From Home, in which villain Mysterio reveals Spider-Man’s […]

Following many cancelled projects and considerable delays, Kanye West’s latest record Donda finally released in August. With a deluxe edition of the album just out, does Donda match up to the previous highs of Kanye West’s discography? Named in memory of Kanye West’s mother Dr Donda West, Donda as an album explores many different aspects of Kanye’s personal […]

Finally, gigs and live music are back. After eighteen months of closures and concerts delayed, rescheduled or cancelled altogether, the excitement to be in a sweaty room filled with people shoving and mosh-pitting was real. And Orla Gartland at Riverside Newcastle did not disappoint. Recommended Reading: Will theatre survive the pandemic? Touring her first album […]

After two top tier seasons of the hit Netflix series Sex Education, it was predictably going to be tricky to live up to the hype. The worry that the show wouldn’t be able to replicate the success of earlier seasons dissipated quickly. Season three, despite displaying notably darker undertones at points, maintains the charm of […]

Such A Fun Age is Kiley Reid’s debut novel and she comes out swinging with this fantastic piece of writing. The story focuses on Emira, a nanny for a wealthy family. She’s a young black woman whose life is turned upside down when she is accosted by a security guard in a grocery shop, assuming […]

It can’t be denied that The White Lotus has become somewhat of a word-of-mouth phenomenon in the last month. Binge-watching the six-episode first series was incredibly tempting, but I managed to space it out over a few days. This proved to be an asset as it allowed me to have many a spoiler-free discussion with […]

This week, Marvel released the seventh episode of their first animated series What If, starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and Tom Hiddleston. The show explored the possibility of Thor’s life as an only child, as if Loki and he are unrelated. At the beginning of the episode, we see Thor crash land on […]

This week’s instalment of Marvel’s alternative timeline of events stars Michael B. Jordan, Mick Wingert, Chadwick Boseman and John Kani. What If this time explores a universe where Killmonger rescued Tony Stark in Afghanistan. Episode six begins following Tony Stark on his business trip to the Kunar Province. The reality branches off when Killmonger (a US […]

Marvel Studios’ What If returned again this week with yet another alternate event. Its previous three episodes covered Peggy Carter taking up the mantle of Captain Carter, T’Challa exploring the galaxy as Star-Lord and the earth without its mightiest heroes. Episode four stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, and Benedict Wong, following Stephen Strange’s car […]

Country idol Dolly Parton has announced that she is writing her first novel. Parton will team up with novelist James Patterson, for her debut named Run, Rose, Run. There will also be a 12-track album based on the characters and plots in the book with lyrics even featuring in Run, Rose, Run. At the centre […]

Marvel’s most recent series What If provides alternate realities for various scenarios across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So far, the series has revealed the possibilities of Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter, as well as T’Challa battling across the galaxy as Star-Lord. This episode stars Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, […]

Marvel’s What If…? provides alternative outcomes of events from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series so far has covered Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter, rather than the creation of Captain America. This second instalment stars the late Chadwick Boseman, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, and Benicio Del Toro. This episode follows T’Challa as Star Lord (instead […]

This Disney Plus original series follows a modern take on the many possible outcomes of various Marvel Cinematic Universe scenarios, answering the ultimate question what if…? Starting Hayley Atwell, Josh Keaton, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, and Stanley Tucci, the first addition of this long awaited series re-tells the story of Captain America: The First Avenger. […]

Billie Eilish is not a normal 19-year-old. Her smash-hit debut album When we all fall asleep where do we go? catapulted the teenager to stardom almost overnight, receiving critical acclaim and a handful of Grammys. What started as homemade bedroom pop cooked up with her older brother FINNEAS became the face of modern music. Nevertheless, […]

The final season for showrunner Russell T Davies and the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant. Series Four is arguably the most acclaimed, iconic, and beloved season of television the show has ever produced. So loved was this era that five special episodes were produced throughout 2009 to pay tribute to their final days. All these episodes […]

Bo Burnham is in many ways a perfect figure to usher in this new wave of pandemic performance art. He is a figure of millennial endeavour, being a musical comedian who got his start on YouTube over a decade ago. One of the original internet content creators, a type of job spearheaded by this generation, […]

 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. This book was an unexpected buy, but the premise of the book had me hooked. A Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars-type thriller but with two black leads who are LGBTQ? Sign me up! In fact, the plot is so much more than I could’ve hoped for. I can see […]