Literary Fiction | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Art of Love (& Loathing) by Stephen Daniel Ruiz

Author Stephen Daniel Ruiz dives deep into the mind of a struggling writer desperate for the puzzle pieces of life to fit in The Art of Love (& Loathing). A thoughtful, emotional, and at times hilarious novel, this book is a magnifying glass on modern life with all its unfair pitfalls and daily existential crises, reminding readers of what unifies, rather than divides.

Arthur Kimble is a man whose heart is in the right place, but his mind doesn’t always follow, nor does his luck or behavior. Struggling to keep a floundering literary journal afloat, while also attempting some […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-10-01T06:54:36+02:00July 28th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction|

Review: Colors by J.M. Ferreira

Colors, J.M. Ferreira’s stunning literary debut, paints a startling picture of race and sexual discrimination in a not-so-distant future Hawaii.

The year is 2026. Thirty-six-year-old Pualani “Pua” Kahahawai is an educated native Hawaiian living in the shadow of her older brother, Kalani, the “jailbird sovereignty messiah of the Kahahawai clan,” now doing 30 years in state prison. Having lived the first half of her life in a tent on the beach, Pua now lives in an old plantation-style house with her parents, her aunty and her aunty’s son and wife, and their son. Her father is confined to a […]

Marta Cheng2020-04-17T04:57:16+02:00April 16th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction|

Review: A True Map of the City by J Guenther

Horus Blassingame travels from Albion to Deresthia for a business conference that will change his identity forever in A True Map of the City by J Guenther. The fictional setting of this twisted novel creates tangible discomfort on every page, and the tragic spiral of Horus from suspicious stranger to local legend makes for a quick and bizarre read.

As Horus attempts to navigate his surroundings in a foreign land, he encounters a colorful stream of characters, but it is difficult to determine help from harm in such a backwards place. Only a handful of people speak Anglic (English), and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-05-20T05:04:56+02:00March 30th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, J Guenther, Literary Fiction|

Review: The Lighthouse by Elaine Kozak

Past traumas, dark secrets and reconciliations are at the heart of The Lighthouse, a wonderfully engaging work of women’s fiction by Elaine Kozak.

Driven by a need to reconnect with her estranged father after learning of the death of her mother, a stricken Leah Larsen returns to the family ranch founded by her deceased grandparents in Taos, New Mexico. Her father is less than thrilled by Leah’s arrival and gives her the shock of her life when he tells her that he and Leah’s mother had kept the baby son Leah had given birth to ten years earlier. Even […]

Marta Cheng2020-04-27T02:30:41+02:00March 19th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction|

Arnold Falls by Charlie Suisman

Author Charlie Suisman delivers a home-cooked platter of playful jabs and thoughtful relationships in Arnold Falls, a book about small town life in all of its strange intimacy.

In a place where everyone knows your business, people’s lives and stories collide in wondrous moments of synchronicity and gossip. In the hamlet of Arnold Falls, this seems particularly true, but that’s mostly due to the insightful lens of Suisman’s writing.

Jeebie Walker sits at the center of this tale as a highly original and unpredictable protagonist, but he is also supported by a cavalcade of memorable characters, as quirky locals […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-03-05T12:01:35+02:00March 5th, 2020|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction|

Review: Holding On: Stories of Furnass by Richard Snodgrass

Brimming with rustic energy and written in an authentically American voice, Holding On by Richard Snodgrass is a surprising collection of stories that capture the rise and imminent fall of Furnass, a small American town like so many others.

In the industrial boom of the 20^th century, mill towns were enjoying their heyday, driving the great machine of the nation forward. Given the perspective of time, however, modern readers know that this would be a temporary golden age, one still gasping out its death rattles to this day. Within this framework of transient prosperity and bold hope for the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-12-03T10:48:06+02:00October 29th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction, Richard Snodgrass, Short Stories|

Review: Simon’s Mansion by William Poe

Running from your present and confronting your past speak to the heart in Simon’s Mansion, a moving work of LGBT literary fiction by William Poe.

Not long out of rehab, Simon Powell returns to his hometown of Sibley, Arkansas, eager to leave behind his destructive life in Hollywood. Given his relatively young life, Simon is a man with many ex’s to his name – ex-husband of Masako, a Japanese woman he had briefly married, ex-cult member and former follower of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and ex-junkie, with cocaine and crack his drugs of choice.

He’s also a former […]

Marta Cheng2019-10-14T11:42:43+02:00October 13th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQI, Literary Fiction, William Poe|

Review: The Best of Intentions by Gilbert Van Hoeydonck

A moving work of literary fiction, The Best of Intentions by Gilbert Van Hoeydonck illustrates the stark message of its title: the best of intentions are too often not enough.

Transplanted Melbourne social worker, Kurt Edelman, is hardly a typical Buddhist. With a penchant for cheap wine, leather jackets, and violent video games, he’s disillusioned and frustrated by the social system for which he works – a system that is for the most part understaffed, underfunded, and forces a high case load on its workers.

However, when young Kylee Watson, one of his former charges, jumps from the roof of […]

Marta Cheng2019-09-30T09:12:25+02:00August 20th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction|