Booker Prize 2026: Longlist Reviews and Predictions
Another year’s Booker Prize, another longlist read, but was it a good longlist or a bad longlist? The answer to that question is undoubtedly, yes it was. There’s some real…
Blowing Up Your TBR
Like It's Parliament
Sharp takes on literary fiction, prize lists and the best books from all over the globe.
Celebrating 6,000 subscribers
Help choose what Scott reads next. Nominate a book for a review.
Latest Reviews
Recent Reads: Saoirse, Kin, Nonfiction and More
Hello and welcome to Gunpowder Fiction and Plot, my name is Scott and this is a channel where…
Women’s Prize 2026: Longlist Reviews and Predictions
I’m going to review every book on the Women’s Prize longlist. Tell you what’s good, what’s bad, what…
Booker Prize 2025: Longlist Reviews and Predictions
Is this really the best we can do? I’m going to review every book the Booker Prize longlisted,…
Gunpowder,
Fiction
& Plot
My name is Scott, and since 2019 I have been on YouTube telling anyone who'll listen exactly what I think about literary fiction — which, it turns out, is quite a lot of people and quite a lot of thoughts.
One day I had a thought: why am I filming videos for readers? After all, we like to read. So the blog was born as a place for text-based reviews. You can read each video's discussion here, or browse by book to find every time I've talked about a particular title.
If a critic never reads a bad book, how can you trust any of their reviews? Few books are perfect, and few are entirely without merit. I cover the book prizes, literary fiction, new releases, and books from all over the world.
I strongly believe that the best books balance a hedonistic quality with a good cerebral shake-up. Books can be art and books can be entertainment — is it too greedy to want them to be both at once?
Books
Nonfiction
Julie Myerson
After You’d Gone
Maggie O’Farrell
Kin
Tayari Jones
Saoirse
Charleen Hurtubise
Daring to Drive
Manal al-Sharif
Heap Earth Upon It
Chloe Michelle Howarth
Recent Reads
Recent Reads: Saoirse, Kin, Nonfiction and More
Hello and welcome to Gunpowder Fiction and Plot, my name is Scott and this is a channel where I use…
Keep the TBR Exploding
If you've found a new favourite book here, consider supporting the channel on Patreon or buying a Ko-fi. It keeps the reading — and the opinions — going.