Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak

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January 26, 2026

“Some calculations are simple. Sons trump daughters. Three children trump one. Deep in my heart, I had already decided that nothing could be worse than the life I had,” (Stachniak 10).

During King Louis XV reign, scouted teenager girls were sent to live in a nondescript villa in Versailles before being sent to the plaza to please him. Young Veronique is one of these girls and quickly becomes a favourite of the King before becoming pregnant and being sent away to give birth to her daughter in secret. Many years later Marie-Louise wonders about who her parents were but finds a passion for science, becoming a midwife during King Louis XVI reign as the revolution is underway and life as she knows it will dramatically change. Continue reading

Book Review: Ajar by Margo LaPierre

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January 20, 2026

I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.

“When I saw forward into my death and welcomed its yawn, I haunted me,” (LaPierre 4).

In her newest poetry collection, Margo LaPierre gives a powerful and real look at psychosis, mania, and bipolar disorder. Not looking to romanticize her mental illness, LaPierre humanizes it and gives readers a more intimate understanding of her struggles and recovery while also touching on topics of infertility, gendered violence, and the ways one can heal and grow from trauma. Continue reading

Book Review: Black Creek by Susan Grundy

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January 18, 2026

I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.

“Why did it scare her so? She was a fighter, an independent woman with a successful profession, not house bound like her mother had been, and all the female generations before. And yet, the Stong family lineage held her captive,” (Grundy 163).

Right before Kate Stong Smythe’s mother dies, she calls out five women’s names. Shaken, Kate discovers that the five names belong to her own ancestors of the Stong family, in particular the women and reminds her of an incident from her childhood when these women haunted her dreams and the pictures she drew. Eager to know more, Kate travels from Montreal to Toronto where she finds an abandoned farmhouse from her family and begins learning more about her family’s past that has been unknowingly repressing her. Continue reading

Book Review: A Town With No Noise by Karen Smythe

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January 16, 2026

I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.

“Fear is what makes people behave badly,” (Smythe 198).

Samara and J. have only started their relationship when they go off to visit J.’s hometown of Upton Bay, a smalltown where tourists visit and the wealthy live. Sam has been hired to write a piece promoting the tourist industry of Upton Bay while she and J. stay with J.’s grandfather Otto, a once prominent businessman who is now elderly and unwell. As Sam explores Upton Bay she sees the ugliness under the tourist attractions, particularly against it’s migrant workers. Sam can’t help but see the hypocrisy of how these workers are treated and how former migrants like Otto can look down on these people. Sam starts to suspect that Otto fled Germany for more nefarious reasons compared to the reasons her own mother and grandmother fled Norway during the second World War. That is until a family secret of Sam’s comes to light, and Sam starts to question everything. Continue reading

Book Review: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

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January 11, 2026

“But here is the nature of life. That we must love things with our whole selves, knowing they will die,” (McConaghy 232).

Dominic Salt and his three children are the caretakers of a tiny island called Shearwater, home of the world’s largest seedbank. Once full of researchers, dangerous environmental events caused by climate change have left the Salts as the only ones left. That is until a storm brings a woman ashore. Rowan is fiercely independent, but injured after being shipwrecked on Shearwater she’ll have to trust the Salts to help her heal, even though she doesn’t trust them one bit. Rowan always meant to come to Shearwater, but she refuses to tell the Salts why, while the Salts are hiding secrets of their own. Continue reading

Book Review: Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon

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January 9, 2026

“For me, change is difficult. It is paralyzing. It makes me feel vulnerable…I love in fear of making the wrong choice, because I have seen how badly that can go,” (Shannon 122).

Marosa Vetalda awaits the day of her wedding to her betrothal Abrecht Lievelyn, of Mentendon, as she is a prisoner in her own home by her distant father who may or may not have had something to do with her mother’s death. While Aubrecht awaits for his wedding to Marosa, he rules over the kingdom of Mentendon in every way but name as he watches his great uncle fail to help his people in ways he know he can. Estina Melaugo hunts the sleeping dragons, dreaming of a different life with her lover. But now the great beast Fyrdel has awoken, and the world is in danger. Continue reading

Book Review: The Discovery of Flight by Susan Glickman

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January 7, 2026

“She appreciates morbid humour, but most people don’t. They don’t get that life can be funny AND tragic at the same time, like in those old Road Runner cartoons my dad loves, where an anvil falls on Wile E. Coyote’s head and you’re supposed to laugh even though obviously it’s not funny for Wile E. Coyote,” (Glickman 95).

Twelve-year-old Sophie is writing a journal for class in which she tells her teacher all about her likes, dislikes, her upcoming Bat Mitzvah, and her great love for her sixteen-year-old sister Libby who has cerebral palsy. In alternating chapters, Libby writes a story for Sophie’s upcoming thirteen birthday that she is determined to finish though her health is declining. Continue reading

Book Review: Scarlet Morning by N.D. Stevenson

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January 5, 2026

“Truly lucky people have a lot of bad things happen to them along with the good…and yet, even the worst of them always seem to lead somewhere worth going,” (Stevenson 338).

Viola and Wilmur have been waiting for their parents to return to them, but after fifteen years of waiting it seems less and less likely that that will happen. Nobody ever ventures out to the desolate town of Caveat, that is until one night Captain Cadence Chase breaks down their doors looking for a mysterious book that is in Viola and Wilmur’s possession. The three make a deal: Chase can have the book, but only if she takes them along with her. While Viola and Wilmur are excited to leave dreary Caveat, they have no idea what awaits for them on the dangerous Dickerson’s Sea. Continue reading

Book Review: Is This a Cry For Help? by Emily Austin

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December 30, 2025

I received this book from Simon and Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

“I’d rather be me now, than me any age prior. But there is this heaviness to aging. Who I am was built on the shoulders of the person I was last year, and the year before, and before, and before. I’m not just thirty-three; I’m twenty-seven. I’m eighteen. I’m nine. I was just born. And I have to carry all of those versions of myself, the feelings they have, and the mistakes they’ve made, everywhere I go,” (Austin).

Thirty-two year old Darcy is living a better life than she ever thought she would: she’s a librarian at her local library branch, her wife Joy runs a book binding business outside of their house, and they have two great cats. She has also just returned back to work after a mental health leave after learning that her ex-boyfriend Ben has died. As Darcy navigates her own mental health and speaks to a therapist to help her understand her relationship with Ben, the library branch she works at is dealing with protests about censorship and book banning, juggling the struggles in her personal and work life hoping for some ease somewhere. Continue reading

Book Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

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December 15, 2025

“No matter what, you will always be loved. You cannot mess up so badly that you will not be loved,” (Anders 161)

Twenty-something Jamie is working on her PhD dissertation, in a strong relationship with their partner Ro, processing their generational trauma, and is a practicing witch. She has a fraught relationship with her mother, Serena, who has isolated herself from the world after the death of her wife and blowing up her career. Jamie tries to help her mother by teaching her magic, but one working together leads to a domino effect neither of them will see coming. Continue reading