Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: You Are Not A Planet And Other Stories by Sean Manseau

It is not often that I pick up a book of short stories with a song in my heart because the genre is just so damn difficult to get right – and when a writer succeeds he then has to stand against the greats such as H.P. Lovecraft, Saki, Angela Carter, Roald Dahl. Why do I mention these names? Because Sean Manseau, the author of You Are Not A Planet could easily line up against them.

Bijoux grotesques flank classic modern Gothic and stripped fairytale prose to reveal a universe not content to exist, but to thrive with crafted language […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:22:34+02:00December 3rd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Hannah Singer, Celestial Advocate by Peter G.

In life, Hanna Singer, protagonist of this unique fantasy, was a rare individual: a medieval atheist. After she dies, she finds out just how wrong she was. As it turns out, the Christian villagers who had tried so hard to convert her didn’t have it quite right either.

In the afterlife, Hannah becomes a Celestial Advocate, someone who argues the cases of souls petitioning for admittance to Heaven. The concept alone is falling-off-the-chair funny, and the book lives up to that promise, with slapstick, puns, and wry cultural references scattered throughout. The Archangel St. Michael is a delightful trickster, with […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-09T21:23:33+02:00November 29th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Spitting Image by M. K. Mattias

In the novel Spitting Image, by M. K. Mattias, the main character can’t stay out of trouble. Simone Darling is terrified of flying. After her father plunged to his death when he fell out of a helicopter, Simone never wants to step foot onto a plane. Also, she’s afraid of America, especially Miami. Her fear of Miami is extreme. Simone, who lives in Sydney, Australia, never wants to visit her mom in Florida. Never.

That is until Simone’s stepfather offers to pay her $80,000 to restore some of his paintings. She’s an art restorer. At the time, she isn’t making […]

T B Markinson2014-05-09T21:24:47+02:00November 28th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Mystery Book Reviews|

Review: The Life and Times of Car Johnson by Rebekah Webb

The Life and Times of Car Johnson by Rebekah Webb is a comedic biography of a fictional character. One could almost say my reading experience of this book was a trip.

The book is presented in first-person, as though the character is dictating. During the first few chapters, I thought I was reading a transcript of a stand-up routine. In the beginning I was thinking, this is decently written comedy but when does the story begin? Surely a “life and times” includes a story?

I hung in with the book because the material has a flow. I felt I was […]

Lela Michael2020-02-21T06:29:53+02:00November 27th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Humor|

No Time to Cry by Vera Leinvebers

For Vera Leinvebers, a concert pianist and music teacher now living in Canada, childhood memories of war, loss and dislocation are so painful and traumatic she is forced to create a fictional self Lara to retell them, even from a safe distance.

When her family flees her childhood home in Riga, Latvia, toward the end of World War II, Lara embarks on the journey that, by its end, robs her of her brother, her beloved animals, her education, her music, even her voice; in short, the war “had stolen my childhood from me.” Interrupted with very rare episodes of kindness, […]

BlueInk Review2012-11-26T22:16:46+02:00November 26th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|

Review: Destinies in Motion by Liliya V. Galitskaya

Destinies in Motion is an epic adventure fantasy tale written by author and illustrator Liliya V Galitskaya, a Russian seamstress living in Canada.

The story introduces the Vladners, a family whose everyday lives are suddenly changed by events that seem beyond their control. Lana, the daughter of the family decides to take on the quest to discover the truth. But her pet cat Tac knows everything about the mystery and starts to lead her on her journey, and once they begin their quest, transforms himself into a hero.

Reminiscent of the film Labyrinth, Lana must find her baby brother in […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:28:48+02:00November 26th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: Aeternum Ray by Tracy R. Atkins

William Samuel Babington, the protagonist of Aeternum Ray, by Tracy R. Atkins, was born in the twentieth century and spent his youth in the same world we now inhabit. But by the time Babington succumbs to the heart defect he inherited from his father, the world and humans have changed dramatically. Told in the form of Babington’s letters to his son, Benjamin, Aeternum Ray recounts the personal history of Babington and the larger history of humanity from the late twentieth century until the birth of Benjamin in 2161. The main action of the book is set after humanity has […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-09T21:29:54+02:00November 20th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Fall by Geoffrey Young

Geoffrey Young’s novel “Fall” is a tempestuous marriage between beautifully crafted prose and a story that leaps time and place to explain exactly why we find our narrator, Paul, a waiter and would-be writer (there is only one letter difference between them, he tells us hopefully) who sits on a fire escape in New York, penning a desperate soliloquy about his fall in life: how did Paul finish up here and why is he so desperate to end it all?