John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Uplifting, spiritually charged, and diverse, Del Mundo: A Gift of Poetry is a delicate collection from poet Jose Day. Ranging widely from social commentary and historical reflections to longing love poems and intimate portraits of everyday life, these pieces are outwardly simple, but emotionally complex and universally relatable. There is a general lack of imagery and poetic style, in lieu of narrative recollection or musing in verse form. More variety in the structure of the poems could give the collection greater range in that storytelling vein, making this intimate and revealing collection even stronger.

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Dirt Road Main Street by Cynthia L. Clark is an engaging rock ‘n’ roll dive into the world of music, memory, and the madness only love can inspire. Tano and Holly are star-crossed and time-cursed lovers, allowing this book to explore the challenges of true connection, the pain of life’s lonely roads, and the indescribable power of music. Written in simple prose, but edged with truck-stop grit, the dialogue is sharp and Southern, while the plot moves quick, unconcerned with excess descriptions or flowery language. Navigating life’s obstacles to hit the perfect chord of true love is no easy feat, […]

A 2020 collection of savagely good writers, The VD Anthology, Vol. 2 brings together more than a dozen excerpts, stories and poems from Club Verbal Discharge. From letters to Coronavirus and nostalgic greasy spoon tales in London to modern-day bigotry and the trauma of losing one’s sight, these are hard-hitting and unpredictable pieces. Laced with British vernacular and colloquial speech, this eclectic gathering is well-edited and curated, without any notable weak points, and displays a masterful use of language. These stories come across as gritty, authentic and raw, yet they are also polished and precise, evidence of the obviously talented […]

Take a thrilling dive through the darkness of Seamax prison in Croft by Jason Palmer, the climactic final installment of The Max trilogy. These pages are packed with meticulous heists, brilliant scheming, all-out brawls, and a simmering, palpable tension that makes it difficult to put this prison thriller down. Percy Croft’s methodical mind makes for riveting narration, while the juxtaposition of brutal jail yard violence with delicate planning and clever manipulation is a storytelling feat. Providing a last glimpse into this dramatic world of dirty alliances, perpetual threats to the gangland throne, and heavy questions of morality and responsibility, this […]