For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Each story in Drew Buxton’s debut collection, So Much Heart, puts readers right into the thick of its author’s obsessions, an intoxicating blend of cryptozoology, hucksters, and stray bits of Americana that prompt grandiose delusions of wealth and success from their wayward protagonists. Whether they’re selling the stolen sperm of Sea World Tulsa’s beloved … Read more
[ad_1] There are few writers working today that have shown as much willingness to work across the breadth of genre and subvert its conventions as Colson Whitehead. From the unique blend of reportage and memoir in The Noble Hustle and the post-apocalyptic horror of Zone One to the speculative fiction of The Intuitionist and the … Read more
[ad_1] 2023 has been a great year for readers so far! With so many books that deserve attention and praise, we asked our Chicago Review of Books team members to share their favorites high school superlatives style—including the most surprising or unforgettable read, the book most likely to end up on our “Best Of 2023” … Read more
[ad_1] In her new novel The Possibilities, Yael Goldstein-Love draws on neuroscience, quantum theory, and her background as a therapist to communicate the disorienting, terrifying experience of new motherhood. From the opening description of a traumatic birth in which it is not clear whether the child survives, this compelling and surreal narrative forces the reader … Read more
[ad_1] In a recent interview with fellow author Lindsay Hunter, John Milas insists that terror is more specific than horror. Horror, he argues, is a reaction to something,, whereas terror relies on the the anticipation of something yet to happen, something unspecified. Terror relies on the intimacy of imagination. It’s a highly personal experience, one … Read more
[ad_1] A good short story can feel like a mystical experience, or leave a reader remorseful, longing. Kate Doyle’s debut is a collection of such stories, linked in subtle ways, that perfectly encapsulate what it’s like to reflect on your youth while you’re still in it. The young women in these stories are on the … Read more
[ad_1] “Checking out Historical Chicago” is a new feature series devoted to the work of historical worldbuilding. The world each featured writer builds is Chicago. And yet, each writer brings Chicago to life differently, with different hammers and bricks, brushes and hands. This series approaches Chicago as a city constantly under construction: a story that … Read more
[ad_1] In 1907, an unrelenting rainstorm hit the fictional town of Hosh Hanna, triggering a massive flood that swept through its streets. The flood took everything with it: houses collapsed, livestock died, and all but two people, who desperately clung to a walnut tree, drowned. The story of the flood that swallows this small Syrian … Read more
[ad_1] Even the terminal dryness of bone hides inside our skin plainly, like dust on a mirror. This can guide us forward or not guide us at all. — Kaveh Akbar, “Portrait of the Alcoholic Three Weeks Sober” In 2017, I started taking notes for a novel I longed to write about a father and … Read more
[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