Category: Book Reviews

Book reviews written for the blog by our fantastic staff and contributors!

The Court of No Record by Jenny Molberg—Book Review

by Susan Muth & Tori Reynolds The tradition of the confessional mode is both continued and made anew in Jenny Molberg’s third book, The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023). Through documentary...

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On the Outskirts: A Review of Dur e Aziz Amna’s “American Fever”

Bareerah Y. Ghani Dur e Aziz Amna’s riveting debut novel examines adolescence, that no-man’s land of skepticism, anger, and a yearning to at once reclaim yourself and be who the world wants you...

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Richard Thomas’ New Short Story Collection Is a Masterclass of Dark Fiction Persona and Experimentation

Timothy Johnson I’ve been following Richard Thomas (but not in a weird way) for years. He is not only an exemplary writer, but a shining example of what it means to be a literary community member,...

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Nonfiction as Contradiction: On Jami Attenberg’s Memoir “I Came All This Way to Meet You”

Lena Crown “No fantasy is wrong,” Jami Attenberg writes in her memoir I Came All This Way to Meet You, released in January of 2022 by Ecco Books and Serpent’s Tail (UK). No fantasy is...

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The Quiet Zone: A Town Layered By Its Silence

Melissa Wade Towards the end of his recent stand-up special, Aziz Ansari asks the audience to clap if they spend too much time on their phones. The majority do. He asks if they’ve ever tried...

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Review of Matt Bell’s “Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts”

Leah Sumrall I love craft books. It isn’t so much that I read them hoping to learn something new (though I almost always do), but that I enjoy finding new perspectives on what I already know about...

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The Real Issue: Gary Jackson’s Origin Story

KS Keeney I read Gary Jackson’s first book, Missing You Metropolis, when I was twenty-one, still getting my feet under me as an adult and poet, and was awed at the idea that you could mix poetry...

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Chibundu Onuzo’s Sankofa Sparks Self-Discovery and Reinvention

Bareerah Y. Ghani Chibundu Onuzo’s new novel, Sankofa, is poignant and perceptive in its exploration of grief, family bonds and the intersectionality of race, ancestry and identity....

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LeVar Burton Gives a Powerful Voice to His Visionary 1997 Post-Apocalyptic Novel

Timothy Johnson If you’re a child of the ’80s like me, LeVar Burton may have been an important part of your formative years. Whether you tuned into Star Trek: The Next Generation every week, kept...

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Our Last Blue Moon: Dance of Love

Martin Mitchell Will it come like a change in the weather?Will its greeting be courteous or rough?Will it alter my life altogether?O tell me the truth about love.—W.H. Auden I thought of these...

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