Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell is published in hardback by Sceptre, priced £20 (ebook £10.99). Available now.

It’s the 1960s and Utopia Avenue - aka ethereal Jasper, folksy Elf, lippy Dean and laidback Griff - are trying to make it big as a band, scrapping over song credits and struggling with their demons as they go.

Each bandmate has a certain spark to them, but this latest book from David Mitchell is off-puttingly long, peppered with many a forced, awkward celeb cameo (Bowie, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin...), alongside Mitchell’s usual nods to his other books (characters that overlap his literary worlds).

Even harder to square though is the way it’s structured; chunky paragraphs alternately flit back and forth in time, not in a way that’s disorientating, but in a way that slows and halts proceedings frustratingly.

Snatches of Utopia Avenue contain soul, but it takes some getting to.

l Olive by Emma Gannon is published in hardback by HarperCollins, priced £14.99 (ebook £6.99). Available now.

The story follows the eponymous character and her three best friends, Isla, Cecily and Bea.

Moving between their 20s and their present-day mid-30s, we see how their lives have taken very different paths.

Gannon’s characters feel comfortingly familiar, and their various struggles many women will be able to identify with.

Some plot developments felt a little rushed, the writing a little hurried.

However, that doesn’t take away from how enjoyable it is; the fact I devoured it in one weekend says it all.