“These letters, and the people who wrote them, were a lifeline for me, an antidote, a cure for the sudden stillness of the wheels under me,” (Coyote 5). During the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Ivan Coyote found themselves grounded in Ontario after years of performing and speaking around the world. During this time, …
“If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling’s whole life would have been entirely different,” (Montgomery 9). Twenty-nine-year-old Valancy Stirling lives a sad and lonely life with her overbearing mother and strange aunt, never having been in love and considered the “old maid” of the Stirling clan. The only solace she …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. “At some point you have to admit the truth,” (Cardinal 62). Maria and her two children, pregnant teenager Lisa and excitable preteen Jude, have just moved in to a beautiful new house. Her children can’t believe it, it’s too good to be true, …
“Shame is a way of life here. It’s stocked in the vending machines, stuck like gum under desks, spoken in the morning devotionals,” (McQuiston 288). Four years after moving with her moms from sunny California to False Beach, Alabama and attending Willowgrove Christian Academy, Chloe Green is so close to winning she can almost taste …
“We often use our belief in another person’s ‘resilience’ as an emotional shield. We protect ourselves from the discomfort, confusion, and helplessness we feel in the face of their trauma. It’s a kind of looking away; it lets our worldview go unchallenged and lets our life continue with minimal disruption,” (Perry 187). What Happened To …
“I write as though I’m writing about someone else. ‘I’ is an invention to prove we exist. ‘I’ is the line drawn through the fabric of time. ‘I’ imposes meaning on random events. ‘I’ implies significance,” (Thanh 16). Yasuko Thanh’s memoir follows her early childhood in Victoria, B.C as an honour role student and embracer …
“It is a beautiful mask, but all masks fall. In the end,” (Shannon 36). After being tortured by Scion, Paige Mahoney is sent to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris with her former enemy but now partner, the Rephaim Arcturus Mesarthim. The mysterious Domino program, which has saved her, has plans of their …
“Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky. Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace – as though not built to fly – against the roar of a …
“This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death,” (St. John Mandel 195). Eighteen-year-old Edwin St. Andrew comes to Canada after disgracing his family during a family dinner. He finds himself exploring a Canadian forest when he suddenly hears a few notes of a violin …
“Religion, I believe, is one of the ways we attempt to answer the two Great Questions that ache within us all: ‘how shall we live,’ and ‘what happens when we die,’” (Bernstein 11). Since Midnight Mass came out last fall I’ve watched it four times with no plans of stopping anytime soon. I haven’t watched all of …
Sarah O'Connor 