Book Reviews Archive
Review: I KNOW YOUR KIND by William Brewer
With scars across its pages, I Know Your Kind conveys the pervasive shadow the opioid epidemic casts across Oceana—and, by extension, towns like Oceana—in a way that statistics, figures, and journalism cannot.
The Best Short Story I Read This Month: “Take Your Child To Work Report” by Maya Beck
By formatting her short story “Take Your Child To Work Day Report” like an actual report, Maya Beck examines power dynamics in the classroom and society as a whole.
Review: OUT OF THE BLUE: NEW SHORT FICTION FROM ICELAND Edited by Helen Mitsios
These stories stray far from tourist brochure representations; they are not filled with glacial lagoons, ice caves, thermal pools, or Björk.
Review: A TWENTY MINUTE SILENCE FOLLOWED BY APPLAUSE by Shawn Wen
If Marcel Marceau as a performer and a French man was cheeky, brilliant, and impossible, it seems no accident the title of Wen's book-length essay is what it is.
Review: EASTMAN WAS HERE by Alex Gilvarry
In focusing on the interior life of a man in crisis, Gilvarry is able to speak to the beauty that can be found at the end of an existential crisis, at the end of middle age.
Three Chapbooks: Reinventing Prose Poetry for a New Century
While Nikki Wallschlaeger’s work resembles prose poetry more broadly, it uses spaces for its pacing, grammar, and syntax instead of punctuation. Angel Dominguez uses the form to write a series of letters, and Andrea Lawlor’s prose reads like a poetic manual for utopia.
Review: IRRESISTIBLE: THE RISE OF ADDICTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF KEEPING US HOOKED by Adam Alter
According to Adam Alter, 70 percent of office emails are read within six seconds of arrival.
Review: LONESOME LIES BEFORE US by Don Lee
Don Lee's latest novel proves to be a deceptively nuanced tale about the disconnect between our dreams and the limits of how far we'll go to obtain them.
Review: DEAR CYBORGS by Eugene Lim
For Frank Exit, a man tasked with recovering the kidnapped children of a Japanese diplomat, gone are the days of a simple ransom request for money or a getaway vehicle.
Review: HARD CHILD by Natalie Shapero
These often dark and deeply personal poems are armored with comedic turns and allusions to our “rotting times.”