(warning: This book, while not having any spoilers, does sketch out the parts of the novel. If you want to experience the true glory of this novel, go and read it and then come back to this review.) In 1977, my family moved to South Florida, to an ocean front town an hour north of…
I have never read a novella quite like Delilah S. Dawson’s Bloom before. One review describes it as “sapphic cottagecore horror”, which is an accurate three-word summary. It’s an odd chimera of a story where cozy descriptions of gardens and cupcakes mingle with a disquieting mood and tension that eventually grows to a fever pitch….
In Nita Prose’s The Maid, we are given a first-person narrator in Molly—the Maid herself. Molly, a presumably neurodivergent young woman, finds her sole joy in working as a housemaid at the Regency Grand. Following the recent loss of her beloved Gran, Molly navigates a world where understanding others’ responses remains a constant struggle, leaving…
Lilith is many things in a single overstuffed package. It’s an overly-modernized take on the tale of the Bible’s first rebellious wife; it’s a cry for goddess worship that works and ought to be heard. As a Catholic schoolgirl who grew up on Tori Amos’ Mary Magdalene worship and ‘we both know it was a…
The best thing about Black Sheep is that it is funny. Mordantly so, knowingly so, and that’s part of what makes it so great. It’s also genuinely suspenseful, but it’s the way that it makes you care about its cranky heroine that makes it interesting. Twenty-three year old Vesper Wright escaped her bizarre family years…
Set in the crucible of Spring 2020, as the pandemic’s grip tightened, Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake is a marvel. The narrative takes place over a few weeks on a family farm–echoes of Chekhov’s cherry orchard–in Michigan, where Lara Kenison, her husband, and their three adult daughters labor amidst the lockdown’s restraint. As the book begins,…
As I’ve said before, the myth of Eros and Psyche is my absolute favorite Greek/Roman myth. I’ve also said before while reading mythological retellings for this site, that an author doesn’t have to adhere exactly to the traditional storytelling frames to deliver a good version of a myth. God knows the Greeks and Romans did…
Steven Rowley instantly captured my attention with his witty and sweet-natured The Guncle. The Celebrants, his follow-up book, is a more grown up outing that follows a group of friends who have been close for twenty years – The Big Chill, but with a more present tragedy. And I definitely detected a whiff of St….
Big Gay Wedding is sparkly and funny, with a winning narrative voice. I did wince a little, though, as our main PoV character struggles awkwardly through acclimating herself to her son’s life. But at least she does come around. Barnett Durang comes from a warm, though conservative, Louisiana family, and things got difficult for him…
The Enchanted Hacienda is Encanto with more romance and whole lot more spice. The end result is a fun, likable brew that entrances the reader. Unfortunately the romance here really holds up the fun. Harlow Estrada is in pain. A wannabe writer who dreams of writing a novel of some import, she’s just been cut…
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