A saint for hares and little creatures is a saint I can get behind, so let’s learn some more about Saint Melangell!
Melangell (pronounced Mel-an-geth in Latin Monacella which translates to “little nun”) was a seventh or eighth century Irish princess who fled Ireland after her father set up an arranged marriage for her. Melangell wanted to live a life of prayer and solitude and found a home in what is now Wales.
“I will never forgive you, unless you find the murderer before the statute of limitations is up. If you can’t do that, then atone for what you’ve done, in a way I’ll accept. If you don’t do either one, I’m telling you here and now — I will have revenge on each and every one of you,” (Minato 196).
Ten-year-old friends Sae, Maki, Akiko, Yuko, and Emily are playing at a school playground during a summer holiday when a repair man comes asking one of the girls to help him. While the girls are eager to help the man chooses Emily, promising ice cream for each when they return. Hours later with no sign of Emily the girls go into the school and learn the horrifying truth: that Emily has been murdered. Emily’s mother Asako is despondent over the murder and doesn’t believe that the four girls are being honest when they claim not to remember the man’s face to police. She blames Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuko for the death of her daughter and promises that if they do not find the murderer before the statue of limitations runs out in fifteen years time she will have her revenge. Continue reading
I received this book from Simon and Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.
“But if it was all of us on planet Earth inside this shiny, driverless car, then what would we be exiting, besides reality? What would we tumble into, if not a void?” (Kushner 25).
Former FBI and now rogue secret agent Sadie Smith, as she introduces herself to readers and to everyone around her, is assigned by an unknown figure to incite provocation in a rural French eco-commune. To do this she begins a relationship with Lucien and makes him believe their love is more than just convenient for her. As Sadie entrenches herself with the members of the commune she hacks into the emails of Bruno Lacombe, an unseen mentor to the activists who calls for them to return to the ancient past and say goodbye to modernity. As Sadie’s employers ask for her to escalate things in the commune, Sadie finds herself seduced by Bruno’s ideas and history. Continue reading
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.
“Yes, baby…That’s exactly what a purple bear should do,” (“Purple Bears,” Ghadery 47).
I adore flash fiction. I think it’s an underappreciated form of writing and incredibly challenging to develop character, plot, and setting in a story that typically consists of only 1-3 pages. Ghadery’s collection is absolutely stunning though, I was shocked by the amount of depth and heart in each of these stories. Some of the characters appear in a few stories or reference others, which I enjoyed. Each stor Continue reading
“As far as she was concerned, family had nothing to do with proximity or blood. Family was a chosen thing. A label earned,” (Schwab).
Seven years after the three Antari, magicians who can control all elements and move between realms, Kell Maresh, Lila Bard, and Holland Vosijk defeated Osaron and stopped the poisonous Black London magic from infecting the other worlds, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other threats to their worlds. In White London a new Antari, Kosika, has been crowned Queen and will do anything to keep the magic flowing in her world, even if that means giving her own blood and the blood of her people as an offering. In Red London a terrorist organization is rising up and threatening to kill King Rhy Maresh, and then there is Tes, a young girl who can see and repair the threads of magic that make up her world. When a strange man brings her a box that needs repairing Tes does as she always has, fix it and makes it better, not knowing what trouble will follow in her wake. Continue reading
“Reconciliation is a process, and that process must begin with an honest assessment of our history,” (Sniderman and Sanderson, xiii).
The small town of Rossburn and Waywayseecappo reserve have neighboured one another for nearly as long as Canada has been a country. The two communities are divided by a beautiful valley and years of racism. In Rossburn a town of Ukrainian immigrants where more than a third of adults graduate university while less than a third of adults have graduated high school in the Waywayseecappo reserve. Sniderman and Sanderson follow two families, one white and one Indigenous over multiple generations to show the story of Canada, and the ways that prejudice and inequality builds in communities. Continue reading
Sometimes I forget that my hair is blue. Or I guess it’s not that I forget that it’s blue but I forget that it’s a part of me altogether. I’ll be walking down the street or sitting at the desk at work when a stranger or customer will tell me that they like my hair, or else they’ll squint their eyes at me before asking how often I have to keep it up before I remember that it’s blue. At one workplace I was nicknamed “Blue-Haired Sarah,” because even though I was the only Sarah who worked there everyone knows a Sarah, but not everyone knows a Blue-Haired Sarah.
“A summer away from everything, where I could read my books without worrying about being called a freak and swim whenever I wanted to, felt like heaven,” (Fortune 32-33).
Persephone Fraser seems to have an idyllic life. She’s made a name for herself as an editor at a popular Toronto magazine and owns a nice apartment in the city, but she keeps everyone at a distance. Once her life was spent traveling to Barry’s Bay for the summer and befriending and falling in love with Sam Florek, but after messing it up twelve years before she can never go back. Until one day Percy gets an unexpected call and heads back to Barry’s Bay, the lake, back to Sam Florek wondering if she might be able to finally be honest with him after what happened so long before. Continue reading
“Lola was gone before she ever went missing,” (Jones 1).
After Cam and Blair solved the missing murder case of what happened to Clarissa Campbell, they’ve sworn off amateur sleuthing. Being doxxed online, violently threatened, and getting sued can do that to a girl. That is until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, begs them for help. Five years before Mattie’s older sister Lola disappeared without a trace and care, but now she’s back, only Mattie is convinced that the Lola who returned isn’t their sister. But nobody believes Mattie, not their stoned brother Luke, nor their right-winged mother, even Cam and Blair think Mattie’s story is wild, but shockingly Blair thinks they should help Mattie with the case much to Cam’s chagrin. But did something happen to Lola, or is Mattie just having trouble accepting that their sister has actually come back? Continue reading
“Many times there are no reasons that will ever make sense,” (Conlin, “Occlusion,” 145).
Watermark is an absolutely astounding short story collection. Conlin writes characters that are so intriguing, who you both root for an try to understand, whose stories you desperately want to know. I love how some of the characters pop up or are mentioned in other stories and adored the love that Conlin has for Nova Scotia. This is such a strong short story collection and I can’t wait to read more of Conlin’s work!
Read my thoughts on all the stories below: Continue reading
Sarah O'Connor 