For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] In July, horror fans are spoiled for choice with the publication of a relative newcomer’s homage to classic horror as well as a new offering from a veteran of the genre. Josh Winning’s Burn the Negative is clearly the work of a horror film enthusiast, with references and tropes a-plenty for slasher buffs to … Read more
[ad_1] It’s fitting that the narrator of Ruth Madievsky’s debut novel, All-Night Pharmacy, is never given a name. Despite the first-person participant point of view, she seems to have sprung fully formed from the functions of those around her, namely her sister, Debbie. Her own traits, her own personhood, are obliterated when Debbie is around. … Read more
[ad_1] On the cover of Ripe, glistening red seeds cling to thin lines of white flesh—pomegranate innards. It is the perfect image for this book: close-up, torn open, almost bloody, almost biblical, impossible to ignore. Inside this cover, a deadly pandemic is creeping across the globe, rents are rising to untenable levels, and men are … Read more
[ad_1] In his debut story collection, The Best Possible Experience, Nishanth Injam creates characters in tight, liminal spaces, between homes and countries, and in transitional phases of life. From a young girl waiting for a gaggle of boys, to a man on a city bus, to a granddaughter and grandfather reflecting on their changing relationship, … Read more
[ad_1] Every month there seems to be another book steeped in the pandemic’s effect. All that time in lockdown must have gone to good use writing pandemic novels and now they’re all getting published, or at least ending up on my desk to review. Caitlin Shetterly’s debut novel, Pete and Alice in Maine, confronts the … Read more
[ad_1] Halfway through Owner of a Lonely Heart, Beth Nguyen writes: “What would it take to make someone, to make you, to make me—leave everything known? The history of my family is also the history of multiple wars, of colonization, of imperialism, of loss and diaspora.” This line characterizes Nguyen’s full body of work, which … Read more
[ad_1] Sarah Viren’s new book, To Name the Bigger Lie, pushes us to re-examine what it means to tell the truth, one gorgeous sentence at a time. The two narratives—one of her high school humanities teacher and his tendency towards conspiracy theories—and the other, a piece about a false Title IX complaint against her wife … Read more
[ad_1] It’s the start of a hot summer in the 90s, and our unnamed narrator is a 22-year-old Australian who’s taken a job as “matron” at an elite all-girls boarding school in England, only to develop an infatuation with the headmaster’s wife. K Patrick’s Mrs. S is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie meets The … Read more
[ad_1] A post-human civilization of synthetic beings, fixated on the concept of children, grapples with the meaning of life…after life ceases to exist. Five Tales 1. How We Acquire Our Children In the time in which we now find ourselves, we acquire our children by digging in the earth. This is hard work, … Read more
[ad_1] From reading Percy Jackson on middle-school bus rides to finding my all-time favorite novel in the queer best-seller, Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, I’ve always been a fervent fan of Greek myths. Not only do they provide rich, vibrant characters and settings as inspirations, but they also open the door for interpretation, ingenuity, … Read more