Tag: fiction

A review of The Mystery of Nida Valley by EJ Ouston

This story is the stuff of action and fantasy with children on a learning curve as they traverse a hidden land where dangerous creatures abound and where they must undertake perilous challenges that test their ingenuity, resourcefulness, and physical prowess.

A review of The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett

Peter’s healing develops naturally through the chapters, and ultimately makes The Bookman’s Tale an immensely satisfying and pleasurable read that combines a range of genres and above all else, celebrates the beauty and wonder of the literary word.

A review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane has been touted as Mr. Gaiman’s first book for adults in eight years. True, it does not quite fall into the “All Ages” category that separates his works from “Adult”  because a six-year-old would probably be scarred for life reading (or listening) to the scene where our hero (a seven-year-old boy) is almost drowned in his Safe Place (the bathtub where he reads) by his own father.

A review of The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice

In this reader-friendly, accessible novel, two parents from different cultures and social classes bond because each has lost a child. Yet The Lemon Orchard is more than a romance between a modern-day star-crossed Lady Chatterley and a Mellors, however, for it involves a not issue in the United States – illegal immigration.

A review of Gamers’ Rebellion by George Ivanoff

The Gamers trilogy will appeal particularly to fans of, Tron, Doctor Who and Pullman’s The Golden Compass (Northern Lights). It really does have everything: mind-bendingly awesome gadgets, characters you can’t help but care about and even a side-order of romance. But more than that this story, while deceptively simple on the surface, challenges readers to consider the big questions regarding our existence.

A review of The Start Of Everything By Emily Winslow

The Start of Everything provides a generous helping of plot twists and turns, causing the reader to question virtually every theory they may construct as to the responsible party. Through this novel, Winslow raises the point that not everyone may be as they seem—there may be a touch of psychosis lurking right below the calmest of surfaces.

A review of Monster by Dave Zeltserman

We learn here that Mary Shelley’s novel was a fiction and a fabrication, Victor Frankenstein an unreliable narrator, to put it kindly. All in all, he’s a nasty, contemptible piece of work. Friedrich Hoffman is cast as an outcast, a wanderer and an avenger whose route towards payback takes in encounters with various Gothic grotesqueries: vampyres, werewolves, devil-worshippers, pseudo-Satanists (a la the Hellfire Club) and maybe even Dracula himself.

A Conversation with Deborah Harkness

The author of the All Souls Trilogy talks about her first novel in the series A Discovery of Witches, about her new novel Shadow of Night, about casting ideas for the upcoming film, about her historical characters, her day job, the intersection of science and magic, her historical research, her writing process, and lots more.

A review of The Songcatcher and Me by Ruth Latta

The term “songcatcher” is a beautiful word to describe the passion for archiving the old folk tunes that accompanied people as they came to settle in North America. The fascinating subtle differences of the different regions come to life.