Lou works a quiet, easy life in the archives of the Historical Institute, but when her boss offers her the chance to catalogue the library of an eccentric nineteeth-century colonel in northern Ontario, she jumps at the chance. But when Lou gets there she is shocked to find that she will be the colonel’s home with a bear. As Lou begins cataloguing what she finds in the house, her mind drifts to the past occupants and the bear himself, until he becomes an obsession to her. Continue reading
“You can be entranced by an idea…and at a certain point you can no longer see the edges of it…But at the same time, it’s important to be able to come out the other side, you have to be able to come up for air. Otherwise, you won’t survive,” (Kitamura 66).
A successful actress meets a man young enough to be her son for lunch at an elite Manhattan restaurant. Who are they to each other? What parts do they play in each others lives, if any at all? Continue reading
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.
“Would it be like that with her? When she died, would her loved ones be told to move on?…She wondered this for weeks. She wondered if this was why people worshipped God, why she herself was attracted to that devotion. God the eternal, keep of an immutable love, with no limits of intensity or of time,” (Khan 206).
On his thirty-third birthday Murad sees Sofi crossing the street, a woman her hasn’t seen in a decade, a woman he was once madly in love with. Murad returns home to his wife as he remembers Sofi, his life from Lahore to London and then Toronto, and how much it had changed. Continue reading
“The world is unfair to women. That’s why women need other women to teach them how to survive,” (Choi).
In 1924, Kim Na-Young lives a quiet life in the village of Daegeori where she cares for her sick mother and tends to her household with her best friend Yeon-Soo. But Korea has been occupied by the Japanese, and after a sudden tragedy in her village her father arranges for Na-Young to be married. Not wishing to be married, Na-Young convinces Yeon-Soo to run away with her so that they may decide their own fate, unknowingly setting off a chain of events that will effect not only their lives but the lives of those around them. Continue reading
“The Collective can be a powerful force. Perhaps together you’ll make the word flesh. Tap the Wound and bring it to vivid life. Making something beautiful is, after all, the best revenge,” (Awad).
Samantha Heather Mackey has just published her debut novel. Living every debut writers dream, she’s been attending literary events and has now finished off her book tour in New England where her university frenemies, the Bunnies, are unhappy with how they’ve been portrayed. Kidnapping Sam, the Bunnies decide it’s their turn to tell their side of the story. While holding the ax, each Bunny takes a turn recounting what brought them together and what they were able to create together while a bound and gagged Sam is forced to listen and learn about the Collective of creation. Continue reading
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.
“The land would always return to its feral character; the trick is to place your bets on when and how. But the bust is inevitable. As sure as the sun fades with the silvering of the day,” (Welsh 84).
As the Klondike Gold Rush comes to an end, unsuccessful prospector Steve Ladle takes a job from a con artist to go to the top of a mountain where he finds a giant, seemingly alive, human ear. The Ear follows Ladle back to Sawdust City to the great enjoyment of the town where tourism starts to thrive again, not knowing that these events will bring about the towns end. Continue reading
“Well, we are the stars…And the stars are us. Every atom in our bodies was once out there. Was once a part of them. To look at the night sky is to look at parts of who you once were, who you may one day be,” (Reid 90).
Joan Goodwin lives a quiet life. She loves her niece Frances and is content with working as a professor of physics and astronomy, though she’s always wished to be amongst the stars she studies. When she learns that NASA is seeking women scientists to join the Space Shuttle program in the summer of 1980 and is selected as one of the candidates, Joan trains and befriends the other astronauts and finds a place for herself in the world she never thought she could have. But then on a mission in the Fall of 1984 everything changes. Continue reading
A son attends his biweekly therapy session, a family dinner is held, and a daughter visits her dying mother. Though these three scenarios seem unrelated, each bleeds into one another, exploring the cyclical nature of trauma in AfterLife Theatre’s newest show Visiting My Mother and Other Repetition Compulsions.Continue reading
“My friends and I have tried cutting out sugar and just plain cutting, magnet stimulation, talking to empty chairs, herbal remedies, pulling out our hair on the bathroom floor, every therapy in the alphabet, and we still feel like we don’t deserve to live…We’re all just trying to make the best decisions we can, trying to drown out the loudest internal scream you could imagine. The craziest thing I’ve heard is when people tell us we’re not trying hard enough,” (Simpson 225).
A year after being discharged from the psych ward, Dee learns that her best friends Matt and Misa are getting married in Turks and Caicos. Matt, Misa, and Dee met at the psych ward and bond over their shared time there and their mental health struggles, but no one else at the wedding knows where Matt and Misa met. This makes Dee uncomfortable, as well as the fact that she’s been in love with Matt since meeting him when they were both in the hospital. With her sister Tilley in tow, Dee has a plan to attend the wedding and prove to Matt that the wedding is a mistake and that he should be with her instead. Maybe then Dee will finally feel that she’s caught up to everyone around her. Continue reading
“When something amazing happens, it’s natural to want to tell somebody, if only to confirm that you’re not losing your mind…And this mystery was definitely stressful…First he needed to conduct some experiments,” (Brosgol 60).
When Oliver’s Great-Aunt Barb whom he never met dies and leaves her apartment to his mom, it feels like a fresh start. After a year of couch-surfing in various relatives homes, Oliver is about to start attending the elite Whittle Academy where students come to school in helicopters and have the latest gadgets. But Oliver is attending because his mom has just gotten a job as a custodian there. Oliver wishes his life could be as easy as his classmates at Whittle, and one day after slipping a wish into a mysterious mail slot in his new apartment it comes true. Oliver wishes for more and more things and life appears great for him, but a wish can only be granted at the detriment to others. But is this enough to stop Oliver from asking for more wishes? Continue reading
Sarah O'Connor 