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Review 31

@review31.bsky.social

185 followers 144 following 24 posts

An online literary review. Est. 2011 www.review31.co.uk

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somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

“We have in Henri Coulette a new major minor poet to marvel at: his forms are exact, his humour dark and wry, and he wears his learning lightly.” In @review31.bsky.social, Austin Spendlowe reviews Henri Coulette’s “New and Selected Poems” - review31.co.uk/article/view...

Returned From the Wilderness

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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W. J. Davies @wjdavies.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Non-fic review this time. Joe Luc Barnes' Farewell to Russia follows his travels through the fifteen countries that used to make up the Soviet Union. Boozy, funny and full of insight into places many of us know too little about. Read for free at @review31.bsky.social review31.co.uk/article/view...

An Old Master Too Large to Ignore

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"We have in Henri Coulette a new major minor poet to marvel at: his forms are exact, his humour dark & wry, & he wears his learning lightly." Austin Spendlowe on Henri Coulette's New and Selected Poems (@carcanet.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"We have in Henri Coulette a new major minor poet to marvel at: his forms are exact, his humour dark & wry, & he wears his learning lightly." Austin Spendlowe on Henri Coulette's New and Selected Poems (@carcanet.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

"Those looking for poetic diction will be thinly sated... What there is instead is a relentless exercise in auto-therapy, working through, stumbling on the occasional breakthrough." Stuart Walton on Joe Carrick-Varty's BEFORE VIOLENCE (@carcanet.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

"Halfon’s descriptive, collative method allows her to remain slightly askance of Gombrowicz, sketching out his contradictions without ever flattening them." Simon Firth on Mercedes Halfon's OUTSIDER EVERYWHERE (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

"Those looking for poetic diction will be thinly sated... What there is instead is a relentless exercise in auto-therapy, working through, stumbling on the occasional breakthrough." Stuart Walton on Joe Carrick-Varty's BEFORE VIOLENCE (@carcanet.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

"Halfon’s descriptive, collative method allows her to remain slightly askance of Gombrowicz, sketching out his contradictions without ever flattening them." Simon Firth on Mercedes Halfon's OUTSIDER EVERYWHERE (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

"An eloquent, humane work of criticism, which displays Vendler's typical sensitivity to what Wordsworth called the ‘turnings intricate of verse.’" Bret van den Brink on Helen Vendler's Inhabit the Poem review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

"At his best, Lerner combines fiction & criticism to postulate both a novel vision of the social possibilities of art & the artistic possibilities of socialising." Nick Bartlett on Ben Lerner's Transcription review31.co.uk/article/view...

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

"The Palm House is a funny book. Part of me wants to write blackly funny; darkly funny — but in truth, it’s the humour that operates the levers of complexity." @marrrtha.bsky.social on Gwendoline Riley's The Palm House review31.co.uk/article/view...

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christopher webb @christopherwebb.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Here’s my take on Cory Doctorow’s #enshittification published by @versobooks.bsky.social for @review31.bsky.social (give them a follow)— it’s funny, depressing but ultimately it’s a useful resource for working out why so many platforms increasingly offer up awful UX. review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

“Cooper’s novels remind us that an artistic life is all about practice, a way of living: observation, questions, uncertainty.” In @review31.bsky.social‬‬, Thomas Chadwick reviews Jeremy Cooper’s new novel, “Discord” - review31.co.uk/article/view...

A Longer, Deeper Look

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Charco Press @charcopress.com · 21/01/2026

The Plains, by Federico Falco and translated by Jennifer Croft, is a "moving and beautifully made novel". Thank you @review31.bsky.social! review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Chard and Beans

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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W. J. Davies @wjdavies.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I spent some time with last year's Nightjar Press chapbooks and ended up writing about creepy birds and the contemporary gothic. Review 31 kindly took it on. Free to read here: review31.co.uk/essay/view/1... @review31.bsky.social @nightjarpress.bsky.social

Contemporary Gothic

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

"The letters convey a picture of two writers in alternating states of vitality & decline, pushing against the threat of both illness & obscurity." Rachel Dastgir on LETTERS TO EUGENE review31.co.uk/article/view...

More Acute Agony

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

"Dog Days is a work that contends with the difficulty of committing words to a page, & letting them stay there." Julia Merican on Emily LaBarge's DOG DAYS review31.co.uk/article/view...

The End of the Good Story

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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W. J. Davies @wjdavies.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

My pick for @review31.bsky.social's Books of the Year 2025 is Alex Pheby's Waterblack, the third volume in the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Superb, strange fantasy that has reinvigorated the genre. @alexpheby.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Review 31's Books of the Year 2025

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

A pleasure to contribute to this connoisseurs' list of books of the year for @review31.bsky.social review31.co.uk/essay/view/1... I chose Old Kiln by Jia Pingwa, translated by James Trapp, Olivia Milburn and Christopher Payne, published by @sinoistbooks.bsky.social

Review 31's Books of the Year 2025

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

That time of year again, and here's my off-trail Book of the Year choice.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Review 31's Books of the Year 2025 review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Review 31's Books of the Year 2025

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

"Pester has a precise ear for the frictionless formulations of contemporary organisational life that promise progress while pointing at nothing. These empty signifiers become a source of dread rather than comedy." Robert Kiely on THE EXPANSION PROJECT review31.co.uk/article/view...

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

"The internet is cooked. What began as a genuinely participatory medium ... has since become an extractive device, mining human creativity for corporate profit." Christopher Webb on Joanna Walsh's AMATEURS! review31.co.uk/article/view...

‘Some of what we did became a thing'

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Katie da Cunha Lewin @kdclewin.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Thrilled to share this lovely review of my book @review31.bsky.social

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

"It’s in the precarious middle zone between personal rage & systemic failure that disaster nationalism mutates." Tymek Woodham on Richard Seymour's Disaster Nationalism review31.co.uk/article/view...

The Ground Beneath Our Feet

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

"The result is a book that emerges as of a spell: of preservation, but also a conjuring of memories that have been lost or deliberately forgotten." Jemima Skala on Olga Tokarczuk's House of Day, House of Night review31.co.uk/article/view...

Myth and Supposition

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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jon repetti @pourfairelevide.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

hello Bluesky I wrote an article about the French author, photographer, and conceptual artist Édouard Levé, who wrote a book called “Suicide” and then immediately killed himself review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

The Foundational Act

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

“The result is a book that emerges as of a spell: of preservation, but also a conjuring of memories that have been lost or deliberately forgotten.” In @review31.bsky.social‬‬, Jemima Skala reviews Olga Tokarczuk’s newly translated novel, “House of Day, House of Night” review31.co.uk/article/view...

Myth and Supposition

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Very grateful to Hugh Foley and @review31.bsky.social for this thoughtful and perceptive review of Poor Ghost!

So much to answer for

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

"Little Pink Book doesn’t just perform dandyism; it participates in what Fredric Jameson famously called pastiche: a ‘blank parody’ that imitates style without satirical intent or critical edge." Elena Basada on Olivia Kan-Sperling's LITTLE PINK BOOK review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Moodboard Maoism

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

“‘Cautery’ follows two women, one real and one imagined, one left unnamed and one semi-forgotten to history.” In @review31.bsky.social‬, Bronwyn Scott-McCharen reviews Lucía Lijtmaer’s newly translated novel, “Cautery” - review31.co.uk/article/view...

Women's Fiction

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

“The object of fixation becomes an instrument for self-flagellation, rather than a breathing person to know and to love.” In @review31.bsky.social‬‬, Brynn Valentine reviews Harriet Armstrong’s debut novel, “To Rest Our Minds and Bodies” - review31.co.uk/article/view...

To Be a Machine?

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

"Tham's simple call is radical: sex is more than 'just sex', for it is social and socially 'spoken'." Gabrielle Sicam on Revolutionary Desires review31.co.uk/article/view...

The Future is Erotic

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

"The old guard of self-consciously male writers would have found only the comic, the satirical even, in such a colossus of inarticulacy as Istvan; what Szalay finds, however, is something universal." @cosmoadair.bsky.social on David Szalay's FLESH tinyurl.com/mpfcu74r

‘They’re interesting to look at in some way’

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

"What does it mean to write for the future when the possibility of any future at all is thrown radically into doubt?" Jon Repetti on two Attilas bit.ly/4i0hYNP

Laocoön’s Gaze: On Aliocha Coll, the Two <I>Attila</i>s, and the Literature of No Future

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

"What does it mean to write for the future when the possibility of any future at all is thrown radically into doubt?" Jon Repetti on two Attilas bit.ly/4i0hYNP

Laocoön’s Gaze: On Aliocha Coll, the Two <I>Attila</i>s, and the Literature of No Future

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Liam Bishop @liamhbishopwriting.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Great to see the institution that is Review 31 on Bluesky!

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

"Self-knowledge alone simply isn’t going to cut it; to really understand the way ‘anger drives the world’, one must look beyond the heuristic of the individual." Tymek Woodham on Josh Cohen's All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World (@grantamag.bsky.social) review31.co.uk/article/view...

Anger Is an Energy

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

"Sophistry & syllogisms paint all anti-war protesters as antisemitic terrorist sympathisers. These are hackneyed but maddeningly effective strategies..." @tadhghoey.bsky.social on Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

There’s No Such Thing as Other People’s Children

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

And lo: here we are, on Bluesky. Pls repost to spread the word!

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"Childishness & adult language-use are persistently, & with vicious irony, switching scales: ‘pointing it up while scaling it down.’ This can induce wild laughter, but also unbearable gravity." @jackbarron93.bsky.social on the poetry of J.H. Prynne review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

All Jokes Aside

Review 31 is an online literary review.

Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"Few Anglophone film critics of the last 50 years have been as humble, curious or open-minded as Jonathan Rosenbaum." Sam Warren Miell reviews In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: A Jonathan Rosenbaum Reader review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Clean-shaved, Well-behaved

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"A gap is emerging between poet & audience, one wrought by increasing professionalisation & the competition for tax-funded prize money which incentivises stylistic experimentation." Joshua Abbey on Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse review31.co.uk/article/view...

Informative, All Too Informative

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Review 31 @review31.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

“The English soul is characterised, for Ackroyd, by a particular combination of intense spiritual mysticism & pragmatic flexibility in the realm of doctrine.” Archie Cornish on Peter Ackroyd’’s The English Soul review31.co.uk/article/view...

Unchanged since Bede

Review 31 is an online literary review.

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Jack Barron @jackbarron93.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

review31.co.uk/essay/view/1... my review of J. H. Prynne's latest

All Jokes Aside

Review 31 is an online literary review.