Doug Johnstone

Well, there’s been a shitload of reviews for the new book over the last week or so, almost all incredibly positive. Let’s crack on:

Some newspaper called The Times had a wee rave about it, Marcel Berlins describing it as ‘quietly excellent’. Ooh, I like that. I’m gonna walk around being quietly excellent all day, I think.

Over at Eurocrime, Amanda Gillies’s head basically explodes with excitement like that bit in Videodrome, saying it’s better than her favourite book of last year, which happened to be my last book. ‘Pure dead brilliant!’ she exclaims. I love her.

At the Scotland on Sunday, Alice Wyllie gives it a very considered, positive write up, saying: ‘The book’s strength lies in its portrayal of the minutiae of life while grief unfolds around it.’

And here’s a big feature interview in The Herald where, thanks to Teddy Jamieson, you find out how I eat soup and what my career low was, amongst other things.

Over at Crimesquad the mysterious M.M. loves Gone Again, and gives this advice: ‘Students of creative writing should read and take note: this is how you use foreshadowing.’ Oh, I live for a tasty bit of foreshadowing.

Yikes. You gotta love a review that begins: ‘Wow! That was amazing!’ Welcome, one and all to the wondrous world of Roberta Bocchese at The Book is on the Table.

Here’s a thoroughly lovely and kind review in The Daily Record by the delectable Shari Low, who calls it ‘harrowing yet touching, intimate yet explosive’. Thanks, Shari!

You love books, right? So do the good people at We Love This Book. Over there, Ann Landmann has a wee rave about Gone Again, saying that ‘Doug Johnstone’s stripped-back style achieves in a few words what others achieve in paragraphs’. Cheers, Ann!

And congrats to Shotsmag – not afraid to go against the tide of opinion, they’ve given Gone Again it’s first snippy review, Gwen Moffat churning out a couple of dismissive paragraphs while presumably sucking a lemon. Well done!

And lastly, not a review as such, but over at Lovereading, Gone Again is apparently Ebook of the Month. Good times!