Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley

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August 6, 2024

“I once read somewhere that no man is an island. But I think maybe girls are,” (McCauley 35).

Liv Whitlock has never known what home is. She and her twin sister have moved from foster home to foster home because of Liv’s own “volatile and violent” behaviour, but finally they’ve found a home with the Millers who love Liv’s sister Everly, and tolerate Liv. But Liv is tired of not being wanted and after using her sister’s transcript’s, wins a prestigious internship on a movie production Shakespeare’s The Tempest set to film in Alaska. Liv joins infamous producer Vincent Bellegarde on a luxury yacht with pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic Gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones and tries to find her place among them when a storm strands the girls on a small strip of island. As the girls work together to prevent starvation and death by exposure, they feel something watching them in the forest, and after some injuries find their bodies changing in strange ways. What is wrong with the island they’ve found themselves on? Will they ever be rescued? Continue reading

Book Review: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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July 30, 2024

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation,” (Tartt 3).

Richard Papen reflects back on his time as a student at Hampden, an elite college in Vermont where he studied in an elite class of six students with a charismatic classics professor. Richard is enchanted by his wealthy classmates, willing to do anything to become their friend and fit into their world, even if it means doing the unquestionable. Continue reading

Book Review: The Long Defeat by Patrick Connors

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July 25, 2024

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

“We are all having / the same nightmare, overcome / by an invisible, relentless enemy / completely unable to protect ourselves,” (Connors, “Virus”).

Patrick Connors newest poetry collection covers a variety of themes mostly connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. Connors touches on topics of isolation and loneliness, the Black Lives Matter movement and the wildfires that polluted the air-quality in Ontario for many days, loss of employment, the U.S. presidential election, as well as the complicated grief associated with the death of his father and his own self-reflection of himself. Continue reading

Book Review: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

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July 23, 2024

“Perhaps you don’t know this, my dear, but theatre can be very dangerous,” (Hammad 162).

Actress Sonia Nasir comes to Haifa to visit her sister Haneen. It’s her first visit back since the second intifada, and she finds the Palestine of the present much different than her memories of her childhood visits. While staying In Haifa Sonia meets Haneen’s friend Mariam who is directing a production of Hamlet in the West Bank and Sonia finds herself forced into the role of Gertrude, learning the plays lines in classical Arabic, and spending time in Ramallah. As opening night nears, their production draws the attention of violent obstacles as Sonia starts to open her eyes to the changes happening around her. Continue reading

Book Review: Gay Girl Prayers by Emily Austin

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July 21, 2024

“If they try to strip you / of your technicolor robes / show them how the sun/ the moon / the stars / all kneel to Queens,” (Austin, “Genesis 37).

Someday, I will be smart enough to write about poetry. But until then, you’ll have to deal with this. Continue reading

Book Review: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

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July 19, 2024

“A movie is a collection of beautiful lies that somehow add up to being the truth, or a truth. In this case an ugly one. But the first spoken line in any movie is not a lie and is always the truest,” (Tremblay 7).

Only three scenes from the 1993 indie horror film Horror Movie ever made it online, but that didn’t stop it from growing a fanbase. Three decades after it’s initial release, Hollywood comes calling in hopes of filming a reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member and he remembers when he was offered the role that would change his life and the lines that were crossed while filming, but he’s determined to help get the film made and honour the artist vision of it’s creator. What could possibly go wrong? Continue reading

Book Review: Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

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July 6, 2024

“The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness,” (Armfield 3).

Miri’s wife Leah was only supposed to be gone for three weeks on a simple deep-sea research mission, but when the mission is delayed and the Centre that employed Leah stops calling with updates, Miri expects the worst. But six months later Leah returns and Miri brings her home, trying to resume their lives. But some of Leah still lives at the bottom of the sea, at whatever happened so many feet below, whatever she saw that she won’t tell Miri about. Continue reading

Book Review: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

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July 4, 2024

“I’m terrified…that there is no world, no scenario, no reality in which I’ll gracefully allow you to leave,” (Hazelwood 379).

The alliance between Weres and Vampyres has been shaky for centuries, one that has disrupted into full-blown war and only sometimes pacified when a Were and a Vampire agree to a one year marriage to keep the peace. It’s what forces Misery Lark, daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman, into marrying Were Alpha Lowe Moreland. Misery is used to being a collateral, had lived ten years of her life among Humans to keep peace with them. But Misery has her own reason for agreeing to marry Lowe, even though the risks of living in enemy territory are astronomical, but Misery will risk it all for the only thing she’s ever cared about. Continue reading

Book Review: Angels in America by Tony Kushner

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June 30, 2024

“An angel is a belief. With wings and arms that can carry you. If it lets you down, reject it,” (Kushner 242).

Thirty-year-old Prior Walter has recently been diagnosed with AIDS and while undergoing treatment discovers that an angel is calling to him. Unable to deal with Prior’s diagnosis, his partner Louis leaves him and becomes involved with Joe, a political conservative Mormon who works with the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn who himself has just been diagnosed with AIDS but is hiding it from the public. Harper, Joe’s wife, is addicted to valium and having a nervous breakdown. Each of these characters lives slowly becomes linked and entangled throughout the course of the play while also giving insight into the politics of the time, the AIDS crisis, race, and the terrifying reality of what it was to be queer during a major health crisis. Continue reading

Book Review: The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards by Jessica Waite

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June 28, 2024

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

“Driving home, I’m caught in the crazy paradox: people want to be remembered when they’re gone, yet everyone’s afraid to talk about the dead. The fastest way to forget someone is to stop saying their name,” (Waite).

When Jessica Waite’s husband dies suddenly of a heart attack she’s heartbroken. But as she prepares for the funeral and adjusting to life as a single mother to her nine-year-old son, she learns that her late husband was living a secret life of drug addiction, infidelity, and debt. Her grief complicated, Jessica’s feelings towards her dead husband become overwhelming as she tries to understand the man she thought she knew with the secrets he was hiding. And when her late husband appears to be trying to contact her from the afterlife, Jessica doesn’t know whether or not she wants a sign from him. Continue reading