The end of the week is here. Again! Someone is playing tricksies with the space time continuum, because this has come up FAST.

Even still, we’ve crammed a lot in. This week we’ve been dealing in the strange and speculative. We reviewed Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, a sinister Gothic thriller about a disgraced journalist who investigates the supposed suicide of a controversial film maker’s daughter and finds himself falling down a rabbit hole beyond his wildest imaginings. It’s a story that seeks out our deepest fears and darkest desires and is essential reading for those willing to take a risk on a slightly experimental and genuinely creepy narrative.

We also looked at Emily St. John Mandel’s National Book Award Finalist, Station Eleven, a lyrical and melancholy story that offers a glimpse at a possible apocalypse and asks big questions: what do we value most? What is the story we’re writing for future generations? How will they read it? And is this the story we want to tell? This one shot straight onto our list of favourite reads for the year, and will appeal to hard core spec fic fans and lit lovers alike.

We usually sit more in the latter camp; however, looking back over our last month of reading Station Eleven is just one of a number of excellent spec fic reads we’ve enjoyed, so we put together a list of our favourite recent titles exploring ‘Brave New Worlds’.

Finally, having read so many excellent books of late, we had a think about what appeals to us as readers and penned an open letter to writers listing what we believe are the essentials of a good story, and a few things all stories can do without. Head on over to the comments to let us know if you agree or have anything to add.

That’s it, week done. According to the good folks at the B.O.M. we’re in for a weekend of more cold and rain. We recommend tea, trackies and one of these meaty winter reads.

Stay warm and we’ll see you Monday!

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