There is a magical quality to the island and the sounds, with all of its seasonal and tonal changes – the turtle and crab hatchings and migrations, the moon phases that make up the section headings, and the way in which the perspectives move around the island. Smith’s writing is poetic and she doesn’t tie everything up into a neat parcel. Instead she allows the characters to develop against the backdrop of an unfolding crisis that is very much a real one in our world.
Category: Literary Fiction Reviews
A review of Men Behaving Badly and The Corona Verses by Tim O’Leary
With both Men Behaving Badly and The Corona Verses, both published by Rare Bird Books, Tim O’Leary proves himself a master of the short form, unafraid to wade into messy, uncomfortable terrain with equal parts irreverence and empathy. These aren’t just stories about individual characters—they’re honest reflections of a country in flux, where comedy and tragedy often sit side by side.
A review of The Three Devils by William Luvaas
What an amazing collection. The best advice I can give a potential reader: pour a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, or even better, both, sit in a dark room with only one light on to illuminate the pages, and sit in the most comfortable chair you have. Prepare to stay awhile. You won’t want to stop.
A Review of Nervosities by John Madera
Madera’s book emphasizes a different kind of narrative pilgrim. Instead of a traveler headed out in search of a story, as Phil Cousineau writes in The Art of Pilgrimage: the journey “as nature’s pattern of regeneration, a journey consisting of departure, arrival, and return,” Madera’s narrators grapple with a perpetual sense of being adrift and often exhausted and burnt by the post-industrial world. These stories are about diasporas, transformations, fragmentations, and layers of meaning.
A review of Everything Must Go by Dan Flore III
In the flash fiction of Dan Flore the conflict could go either way, and often, to his readers’ benefit, it does. Everything Must Go does indeed entertains, and often his protagonist’s pain is his reader’s pleasure. The poet and memoirist John Yamrus’s introduction gives readers a good perspective on Flore’s work.
A review of Jenny, 52 by Susan Montag
Jenny, 52 is a kind of meta fiction about the nature of storytelling, fiction versus reality, in a manner reminiscent of Philip Roth (My Life as a Man, in particular, and all of the Nathan Zuckerman novels generally). Jenny, 52 is made up of seventeen one- to three-page “chapters,” most of which are narrated in the voice of the writer Jenny.
A review of A Life in Frames by by Leonora Ross
A Life in Frames, Leonora Ross’s third novel, is the coming-of-age story of a gifted young artist and the journeys he embarks on in his quest for self-discovery and the pursuit of his dreams. The story opens with ten year old Lejf Busher lying on a blanket under the African night sky in his parents’ backyard in Otijwarongo, Namibia—exhausted, but eyes filled with dreams.
A review of Mother’s Day In the Empire State Or, An Answer to the Arraignment of Women by Constantia Munda
This book is a serious rippler. And readers, dare I say, will be left holding a naked baby higher and higher above their heads as they step deeper and deeper onto the rocky bottom of a raging waterway. Footing will inevitably grow faulty. Vision impaired. And eventually they’ll be submerged, needing to come up for air.
A review of The Nothing by Lauren Davis
Set against the misty isolation of the Pacific Northwest, these stories hum with a quiet unease, exploring themes of solitude, loss, and the strange ways reality can shift when you least expect it. The characters find themselves in unsettling situations where the ordinary turns uncanny, and the familiar feels just out of reach. Davis resists easy categorization, blending elements of the fantastic with grounded, emotional storytelling.
A review of Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
The novel’s emotional depth matches its cultural resonance. The book is a cultural time capsule: Percy’s career choices scream the early 2000s, each chapter title is a nostalgic nod, and the deep dives into music cement the era’s atmosphere. There’s lots of nostalgia for the music of the noughties: Beach Boys, Green Day, Bowie, Neutral Milk Hotel…you get the drift.