Just So Stories

• Publisher: Affirm Press
• August, 2025
• Distributor: Simon & Schuster
• ISBN13: 978192313567

I read several fantastic adult books over the blog break, a few of those just free-range reading and not for review, but this was one I had seen in Affirm’s catalogue and requested because it sounded intriguing. Can I just say it’s been a while since I swallowed an entire adult novel in one gulp?

It is absolutely engrossing. Terrifying and triggering at times, but engrossing and with a final denouement that is so supremely satisfying that it will have you applauding – well, I did at least.

The narrative is written from the viewpoint of 6-year-old Henry, who is a very intelligent little boy who soaks up all his mother teaches him, but is still quite innocent in many ways (as you would expect).

Henry firmly believes he has superpowers (yet to be revealed) because his mother has told him the story so often of how they both, the Queen and the Prince of the Starborn, escaped from their home planet, in order to be safe from the dread and dangerous Wolf King.

For five years, Henry and his mother have criss-crossed the country with their tent and a few meagre possessions in a battered old car, always on the alert for signs of the Wolf King and his minions, knowing full well that the evildoers are searching high and low for them.

It’s a life to which Henry is well-accustomed and most of the time, he doesn’t mind it but there are also times he yearns to be a ‘normal’ kid with a house, a backyard, the opportunity for friends and school and so on.

But the danger is real and Lexi, Henry’s mum, is well aware just how much depends on their remaining invisible. Henry’s father, the Wolf King, is not only cruelly violent but well-connected and wields a lot of power, is slick at cover-ups and utterly ruthless.

When Henry’s granny, Lexi’s mother, known to Henry as Queen-Queen only by way of sending her occasional video chats (via untraceable phones) becomes gravely ill, Lexi’s brother comes looking for them to let them know. The train of events that ensues brings all of them disastrous, and even fatal, consequences.

I honestly could NOT stop reading this. I’m not going to tell any more because almost everything I say would be a spoiler alert, but I can only say if you like the fast-paced thriller genre with strong themes of domestic/family violence, violence against women, corruption within the ranks (police) told in a completely fresh and original way, with moments of levity as well as the dire seriousness, you should put this on your TBR list.

I wouldn’t have it in my library collection even for seniors but I would certainly book talk it to my older ones in case they care to look for it in the public library. I didn’t know Mark’s work at all but I see he has another book and will now be seeking that one out, I was so impressed with this one. Hands down a 5 ⛺🤴👑💀🐺rating for this one.