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Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: Magick In The City by Zakariyya Ishaq

John Locke, partner in the detective agency Locke and Keyes Investigations, is in his office early one morning working on a letter to his landlord and business partner when Walter  Lewis, a potential client, arrives and asks him to investigate the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of Lewis’ father. The case involves witchcraft and sorcery and hints at some even stranger goings-on. Locke refuses the case, not because it involves the occult (an area in which, as it turns out, he has some experience), but because he sees no hope for solving a twenty-five-year-old mystery. Unfortunately for Locke, this is one case he […]

2014-05-05T21:56:27+02:00June 21st, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: Sign It Into Law: How To Put Your Petition On The Ballot by Victoria Stoklasa

Sometimes we forget that our responsibility as citizens requires more than simply voting from time to time (often only in congressional and presidential elections) and then sitting back and complaining about the results. This hands-mostly-off approach to democracy has resulted in our thinking of government as “Them,” when it really is—or at least should be—”Us.”

George Bernard Shaw quipped, “Democracy is a device that insures that we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” Stoklasa’s small manual helps citizens make sure that what we deserve is better than what we’ve come to expect.

Victoria Stoklasa, a political activist from […]

2019-01-22T06:14:09+02:00June 20th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: The Woodpecker Menace By Ted Olinger

This charming slice of life from autobiographical writer Ted Olinger, set in Washington State’s Key Peninsula at the bottom of Puget Sound, is truly flavorful. Beautifully illustrated with scrawly ink blot style drawings from whimsily-named local artist Tweed Meyer, Ted Olinger has managed something rare and magical – to capture not only his own life in miniature, but that of the environment around him, in rich, deep language and poetic writing conjuring up the wilderness prose of Laurie Lee and Jon Krakauer – ten short stories like windows into Olinger’s life as he settles into Peninsula life with his young […]

2014-05-05T21:59:08+02:00June 19th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: Monster by Ben Burgess Jr.

This first novel by poet and spoken-word artist Ben Burgess, Jr. chronicles the love life of Ken Ferguson, a young man who responds to being dumped by a self-centered, materialistic girlfriend by giving up on love and instead devoting himself to pursing as many meaningless sexual conquests as he can manage—and he manages quite a dance card. Ken starts out as a very nice guy, but as he tries to keep himself from feeling any emotion, seducing and bedding women becomes almost a game to him. He gradually turns into a very different sort of person, the monster in the […]

2019-01-22T17:49:12+02:00June 16th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , , |
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Review: Four Times Blessed by Alexa T. Liguori

Four Times Blessed is the story of Crusa, a young woman who lives closely with her large extended family, and is engaged to Andrew, a well-respected boy from her New England island, who falls for Lium, a bodyguard who is supposed to be watching her before her wedding. Her flawless life plan is about to go awry.

A sprawling tale focusing on Crusa’s aunt, who she refers to as her “ zizi” and the cooking and household chores as Crusa looks to form her adult life, this work is maybe a try at literary fiction.

However, without real arcs, as […]

2014-05-05T22:01:47+02:00June 15th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: The Nothing Place by Jesse Relkin

The Nothing Place - RelkinThis ambitious first novel by Jesse Relkin begins with 16-year-old Max arriving in Los Angeles from his hometown of Bend, Oregon to enter an in-patient drug rehabilitation facility. For the few days before he is due to report to rehab, Max stays with his Aunt Mercedes, her children, Erin and Mikey, and their nanny, Shannon. Max is determined to make the most of his few remaining days of freedom by getting in some partying while in LA. It turns out that his aunt, a mortgage broker who may be about to lose her job, her license, and perhaps her own […]

2015-04-13T03:34:48+02:00June 15th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: EMMA By Michael Segedy

Brent Cossack is a former CIA member who has gone rogue. He takes his orders from a shadowy figure codenamed Sacco, and assassinates corrupt corporate figureheads. Then there’s Rick Clark, who’s working to bring the Cossack’s militant group EMMA to justice after a string of murders. As the novel jumps around in time, it pieces together Brent and Rick’s lives before putting them on a collision course with each other.

We like to think that a strong point of view is one of the traits of a good work of art. Be it prose, poetry, or even film, a distinct […]

2014-05-05T22:05:57+02:00June 12th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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Review: The Day The Music Died By Blair Evans


Cameron Forsyth is a young man studying at music school in New Zealand looking for an impossible answer – what is random chance and what is talent? Is he being deluded in his love for music? What is the secret to music’s magic and what has been twisted out of shape by academics and the media?

Along with his few eccentric misfit friends, he struggles to prove his points to musty music professors after a revelation from a guest speaker at the university that turns his life on its head, and alters his perception of what music is forever.

The […]

2014-05-19T18:27:44+02:00June 11th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |
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