The BrickworksLucy E.M. Black Now or Never Publishing, 2023 Review by Hollay Ghadery The challenge with writing historical fiction is not just taking the past and bringing it to life, but making it immediate. As immediate as the page in...
South Babak LakghomiDundurn Press, 2023 Review by Simon Lowe Babak Lakghomi’s sharp-edged, jewel-like novel, South, cuts as cleanly as it sparkles. A minimalist, literary dystopia recalling the sparse, unexplained mysteries of JG Ballard’s early catastrophe novels, South charts the hallucinatory...
DancesNicole CuffyOne World, 2023 Review by Jasmine Morris Nicole Cuffy’s debut novel is a story brimming with vivid prose that weaves together threads of artistic ambition, black womanhood, and a complex internal journey. Cuffy charts how an uncomplicated dream...
Tracking Giants: Big Trees, Tiny Triumphs, and Misadventures in the ForestAmanda LewisGreystone, 2023 Review by Kim Trainor We are surrounded by some of the most beautiful and ancient trees on the planet, yet many of us on the west...
A Safe Girl to LoveCasey PlettArsenal Pulp Press, 2023 Review by Roz Milner For a few years, Casey Plett’s first book, A Safe Girl to Love, was hard to find. Originally published by Topside Press almost a decade ago,...
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil SandsKate BeatonDrawn and Quarterly, 2022 Review by Ellie Eberlee The headline published May 1, 2008, by the New York Times, read as follows: “Canadians Investigate Death of Ducks at Oil-Sands Project.” The article...
Best Young Woman Job BookEmma HealeyRandom House Canada, 2022 Review by Kristina Rothstein On first perusal, Emma Healey’s Best Young Woman Job Book might seem like a slightly unconventional memoir. It could be read as a young writer’s life...
Love Me TenderConstance DebréTranslated by Holly JamesSemiotext(e), 2022 Review by Thea McLachlan “What is this insane world I’m living in?” Constance Debré asks midway through her memoir Love Me Tender (published by Semiotext(e), translated by Holly James). Caught in...
Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and PoetryEdited by David Ly and Daniel ZomparelliArsenal Pulp Press, 2022 Review by Sierra Riley Monsters and ghosts are inseparable from their queer contexts. Werewolves, Medusa, Mr. Hyde and Mothman—these creatures...