Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice (Moon of the Crusted Snow #2)

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November 15, 2023

“What about us?…The young ones. The next generation. The future…we trusted you to care for us. To love us. To make the right decisions for us. And you did. We’re alive today because of you…But for a long time, you didn’t tell us everything about what happened when we were little kids…We asked you, over and over. But you ignored us,” (Rice 110).

Twelve years after the lights went out and the world ended, Evan Whitesky and his community have settled into the northern Ontario bush. He has just become a grandfather and Anishinaabe traditions have been reestablished. But resources are getting scarce, and Evan and the elders know it’s time to leave this land they’ve made home and venture to the home of their ancestors where the white birch grow. Evan, his fifteen-year-old daughter Nangohns, and a few others form a group to find that place, learning stories of what happened when the world ended and the threats that exist outside the bush. Continue reading

Book Review: That Way Madness Lies (Ed. Dahlia Adler)

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November 13, 2023

I’m a simple girl, you tell me there’s an anthology of YA stories adapted from Shakespeare’s plays and I’ll read it. That Way Madness Lies doesn’t disappoint, it’s an excellent collection of stories that Shakespeare lovers will love and many of the stories work as a great introduction to Shakespeare’s works that reluctant teens may be wary of reading themselves. As with any anthology there were some winners and some losers, but mostly winners in this bunch!

Read my thoughts on all the stories in the collection below: Continue reading

Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

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November 9, 2023

“Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures,” (Van Pelt 350).

Tova Sullivan is a woman who knows how to cope. Thirty-years ago her eighteen-year-old son Erik vanished on a boat in Puget Sound, and only a few years ago her husband Will died of cancer. But Tova enjoys her job working as a night cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, especially speaking to the mischievous giant Pacific octopus, Marcellus. Meanwhile in California Cameron has lost everything: his girlfriend, his jobs, and now his two best friends are having a baby. Something’s gotta give, and it might in the name of Simon Brinks, who Cameron believes may be his long absentee father. Determined to get his moneys worth from the man, Cameron finds himself in Sowell Bay looking for answers. Answers one octopus smarter than any human may just have. Continue reading

Book Review: Burr by Brooke Lockyer

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November 7, 2023

“‘I feel alone,” she says, ‘when I’m with other people.’

‘Ah,’ Ernest says. ‘The worst kind of lonesome,'” (Lockyer).

In the rural town of Burr, Ontario thirteen-year-old Jane’s dad has just died. She spends her time fantasizing about becoming a worm that will burrow into his body, buys tarot cards and tries Ouija boards to see if she can make contact. Her mother Meredith is unaware of what’s happening with Jane, acknowledges the disconnect but after finding a bed in the woods near her house and makes a home for herself and the ghost of her dead husband there. Meanwhile town recluse Ernest watches on, mourning the childhood death of his younger sister and is fascinated with Jane. When Jane and Ernest disappear together Meredith is spurred into action to find them while the town of Burr waits, watches, listens, and gossips. Continue reading

Book Review: Pet Sematary by Stephen King

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November 3, 2023

“I didn’t know there could ever be hurt like this, and that’s the truth. It comes, over and over it comes, and it hurts so much…there’s no rest from it even when I go to sleep, when I go to sleep I dream it over and over again,” (King 262-263).

Louis Creed has just moved from Chicago to Ludlow, Maine with his wife and two young children. They settle into the smalltown surprisingly fast, befriending their across the road neighbour Jud Crandall who helps the Creeds feel welcome and shows them the grounds around their house, including the pet sematary where young children have buried their beloved pets. But when his daughter’s beloved cat dies, Jud shows Louis another burial ground that lies further in the woods, that lures people with dark promises. The Creeds are about to learn that sometimes dead is better. Continue reading

Spoonfed – A Scarytober Story

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October 31, 2023

As some of you may remember, each October I use a prompt list for Inktober and write a short story based on the words on the list. This month I asked my Instagram followers to send me some words and they didn’t disappoint!

It’s a great list of words and I love the story that came out of it! It’s all on Instagram, but you can read the full story on my Substack! Continue reading

Book Review: Bluebeard’s Castle by Anna Biller

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October 26, 2023

“As much as we like to believe in fairy tales, where only stupid or bad people meet tragic ends, women are not murdered because they bring it on themselves through their actions or their inactions; women are murdered because they find themselves in the vicinity of a murderer,” (Biller).

Despite her success as a mystery writer, there’s many things Judith wishes for. She isn’t beautiful like her supermodel sister Anne, she was abhorred by her mother and once she died her father sent her off to a boarding school. Bitter and lonely, Judith wants to be seen as more and ends up getting that from Gavin Garnet, a handsome baron who literally sweeps Judith off of her feet. After a speedy elopement and a magical Parisian honeymoon, Gavin brings Judith to the beautiful castle of Manderfield where Judith starts to learn more about her mysterious husband. Things that may even scare her. Continue reading

Book Review: The Corset & the Jellyfish by Nick Bantock

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October 25, 2023

I’m very grateful to the Literary Review of Canada for reaching out to me to review Nick Bantock’s The Corset & the Jellyfish. Read my full review on their Substack, Bookworm!

Book Review: Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

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October 15, 2023

“I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It’s like…am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?…Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a fucking mark?” (Clark).

After being placed on sabbatical from the bar job she hates, Irina discovers she’s been offered an exhibition in a hip London gallery. A fetish photograph who uses average-looking men as models, Irina expects this could revive her career and just needs the perfect model to help her. When her clingy best-friend Flo points out Eddie from Tesco as a possible candidate, Irina knows she has found the perfect boy to bring her back into the art world. Continue reading

Book Review: From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

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October 13, 2023

“lost and alone,/wandering./i swill back the pain; it burns and it belches/rage and despair/leaving only a windigo/who cannibalizes himself,” (Thistle, 157, “Windigo”).

Jesse Thistle recounts his journey of recovery from drug-addiction. He remembers his brief time in the foster-care system with his brothers, moving to Ontario with his paternal grandparents, until he finds himself homeless. Through it all Jesse is haunted by the ghost of his father who abandoned him as he finds himself in and out of rehab centre as he tries to find the road to recovery. Continue reading