One of the most beautiful novels I have ever read. A deep character study and devastating portrait of heartbreak delivered with such sweet, bumbling earnesty. I love Stevens despite his wilfull ignorance and frustrating inability to express anything of himself. Ishiguro so deftly and subtly explores class, loneliness and global geopolitics in a way that is both genuinely funny and utterly heartbreaking.

If you enjoy dandies tremulously throwing themselves on to couches, this book is for you.

This feels particularly timely for 2026, but the world of the 21st century aesthete is far more debauched. Looksmaxxers are microdosing methamphetamines and bone smashing, Dorian just had his portrait.

This felt like two different books. The first 1/4 promised a fantasy biological horror and the next 3/4 delivered a bog standard romantasy novel, replete with anachronistic and inconsistent use of language, flimsy worldbuilding, tedious "banter" and a pairing lacking any romantic tension or chemistry.

My reading of this may have been coloured by the comparisons to Hobb, Wells and Chakraborty because I assure you if you're a fan of any of their works this ain't it.

Petty gripe: the single use of "chuntered" as a said-bookism. We can all right click for synonyms, it doesn't mean we should.