Literary Fiction

Review: Kingdom’s End by Charles D. Blanchard

★★★★ Kingdom's End by Charles Blanchard

Anthropomorphizing animals in literature is a long and proud tradition, ranging from Watership Down and Animal Farm to the Redwall novels of Brian Jacques, and many others. That being said, it is also very difficult to create an engaging novel based purely on the perspective of animals, and most attempts at this are relegated to the realm of children’s books. In Kingdom’s End, however, the second novel from Charles Blanchard, readers are given an intimate look at the complex social hierarchy, unique philosophy and variable personalities within a veritable kingdom of rats.

Using a population of animals that […]

2017-01-16T06:03:45+02:00December 9th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Bright Moon Ridge: A Search in China by Linus Treefoot

Bright Moon Ridge: A Search in ChinaBright Moon Ridge by Linus Treefoot is a literary adventure about Johnny Bartooth who’s dropped a bombshell at 19-years-old – he learns, via a journal brought to him by an aging hippy, about the origin of his parents, who he’s never known. His father once traveled through China and met the beautiful Mei, a doctor tending to his wounds after a vicious attack. They start a love affair, but Mei is trapped in China, so Johnny’s father must go back to save her. Years later, Johnny follows in his father’s footsteps to China to finally discover his parents’ fate.

It’s […]

2018-07-20T09:47:09+02:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Review: The Adversary’s Good News by Israfel Sivad

★★★★ The Adversary's Good News by Israfel Sivad

The Adversary’s Good News Israfel Sivad is a surreal, philosophical novel about Christian Michael Anderson who decides to end his life. He’s got the noose ready and aims to go through with it until he has a change of heart at the last minute. Fortunately, he’s rescued from his attempt by a mysterious stranger named Evius, who informs him that he has, in fact, died.

This leads Christian on an odyssey through the underworld, where he meets gargoyles, demons, a drug-dealing Tinkerbell, but most of all begins to confront the demons within himself.

Sivad is an erudite and ingenious […]

2016-04-27T01:23:26+02:00April 14th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: Myxocene by Troy Ernest Hill

★★★★½ Myxocene by Troy Ernest Hill

Sarah Bennett is many things: a writer, a scientist, and a mother. Her day job freelancing as a science writer has her meeting with the pioneers of future knowledge, although she doesn’t always find herself toward the cutting edge. When she interviews one Dr. Ronald Keating on the subject of the Chernobyl disaster, Sarah unwittingly enters a whole new world of scientific discovery in viewing an eccentric plan to combat global warming and promote better living through chemistry. As she comes face-to-face with hard questions of morality, ethics, emotional turmoil, and perhaps the safety of her family, Sarah must […]

2016-03-04T03:46:14+02:00January 27th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Kai by Derek Vasconi ★★★★★

Kai by Derek VasconiThe disconcerting tale of Kai by Derek Vasconi follows the harbored Satsuki Takamoto, a girl living through a downward spiral of social exclusion, universal envy and ever-deepening depression; in comparison, Seul Bi Rissiello – a resident of Evanston, Illinois – is caring for the mentally ill as she strives for meaning in her life after the brutal loss of her parents in gruesome circumstance. Although unaware of each others existences, both girls live a seemingly poetic tandem of suffering as an unexpected thread ties their tortures together.

This book is quite an eloquent, yet biting read: the slow, creeping, eventually […]

2015-12-29T09:35:27+02:00December 1st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Warning’s Wane by Jaclyn Little

Warning's Wane by Jaclyn LittleWarning’s Wane by Jaclyn Little is an inventive and moving literary novel about a strange world where touching someone makes both people disappear. Paul Danniers and his wife, Colleen, move to the town of Praxia Island, off the coast of Maine, and finds the residents terrified of disappearing, and fearing each other. Warning’s Wane is a meditation on intimacy and alienation that’s at once shocking and cerebral.

Poetic and supremely well-written, this is the type of self-published book there should be more of: literary, but also with a compelling high-concept idea at its core. At times, the narrative is a […]

2015-10-02T08:30:30+02:00October 2nd, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Review: Angels Play Pianos by Pat Estelle

★★★½ Angels Play Pianos by Pat Estelle

Angels Play Pianos by Pat Estelle tells the story of Jimmy, a child prodigy who is able to play Beethoven flawlessly at the age of five. Tragically, the book begins with his death, but the novel tells the tale of hope among the hardship of a troubled family.

The prose in Angels Play Pianos has a quiet grace – especially when describing the abusive father and husband, Edward. He’s truly infuriating and frustrating, but Estelle’s reserve in describing him manages to make him seem more menacing. There’s no anger or vitriol thrown his way; it’s a subtle take-down of […]

2016-03-04T04:24:43+02:00September 28th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Fortune 69 by David Heath ★★★★

Fortune 69 by David HeathContent warning for depictions of suicide and sexual abuse.

On the Internet, there is a website that caters to every depraved and bizarre interest on the planet, mundane or otherwise. Like the Wild West of old, there are no rules, except that you never let what happens there cross into real life. Here on the anonymized “Fortune 69” dot com, reality is just what you make it.

Fortune 69 is David Heath’s debut novel, previously the writing talent behind Bilateral Comics and contributor to several short story anthologies. Heath describes himself as an author of “transgressive fiction,” which is apparent […]

2015-10-06T08:18:24+02:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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