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.
Tag: fiction
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.
A Review of Lifesaving Lessons: Notes From An Accidental Mother By Linda Greenlaw
She survived the storm that claimed the lives of the ill-fated fishing boat Andrea Gail’s crew (the Perfect Storm that inspired the book and film). But nothing prepared her for an even greater challenge—motherhood. Greenlaw chronicles her rapid journey from a self-sufficient, adventurous fisherman to the legal guardian of a teenager in Lifesaving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother.
A review of Flora by Gail Godwin
An unreliable first person narrator allows for the same pleasures of deduction that one would find in a who-done-it. In Flora, readers must be like young Helen, sorting out the contents of a drawer, deciding what’s important enough to retain, and what to let go.
A review of The Woodcutter by Steven Bartholomew
The reader will see first hand what comprises the life of a writer. It is a lonely endeavour, one that can very quickly be speckled with controversy. The reader will almost be able to picture Dana sitting all alone in his hotel room, eating, and writing stories that will help readers realize how hard the lives of Native Americans really is.
A Review of No One Is Here Except All Of Us By Ramona Ausubel
This is not the type of novel you can expect to race through or finish in a weekend. Ausubel’s lyrical, beautiful language and disturbingly compelling imagery seize the reader almost immediately. Even if the reader wants to turn away at some of the more graphic scenes, they don’t turn away for long, as Ausubel manages to capture the best parts of the human spirit while not shying away from describing the atrocities of war.
A review of Bluff by Lenore Skomal
Bluff was born from Skomal’s own experience sitting at her gravely ill mother’s bedside, and the frustration, fear and hope all come through in her writing. To her credit, she hasn’t only drawn on this experience in writing Bluff, but has enlisted the advice of health, religious and legal professionals, all of whom are acknowledged.
A review of Status Quo by Mark Rosendorf
An outer space adventure by a motley crew of mixed ages and a cat, all curious about a hole beyond the moon’s orbit.