Reading Reflections

One of my favorite aspects of reading fiction is learning about history through a character's lense. History textbooks are often drab, and nonfiction, while informative, is designed to teach rather than to engage. But strong works of fiction that can captivate my attention while giving me a history lesson make are even more well-rounded than simply stories themselves.

Every now and then, I come across a book that piques my interest because of its setting in today's society. When I heard about Rosey Storey's debut novel Dandelion Is Dead set in present-day London, I was intrigued. It's not every day you read about a woman impersonating her dead sister on a dating app. I expected social commentary on modern dating and how it relates to singles in their late-thirties. What I got, however, was a contemporary mess.

I'm not a fan of religious allegory in books–I wasn't raised Christian, so Biblical references tend to go over my head. To me, religious allegory is a cop-out for actual writing. Unless writing a religious novel, why would an author allude to something that's not universally known? The best works tell stories that illustrate the depths of human emotion; they're classics because everyone can relate to them.