“Which is better?…The grief of death of the ambiguity of indefinite loss?” (Wallace 76). In the small town of Euphoria a suburban couple, Blue and Culver, have disappeared, but only their estranged friend Fir seems to care. Without any help from the police, Fir enlists the help of their friend Fain as they begin their search. …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. “Lily: They’re all dead now,” (Act 1, Prologue, 14). An adaption of Ann-Marie Macdonald’s novel of the same name, the play follows piano tuner James Piper and his thirteen-year-old wife Materia Mahmoud, their four daughters Kathleen, Frances, Mercedes, and Lily. Dark secrets are unearthed …
“Rarely in life does one occasion upon irrevocable proof of a higher power. But sometimes a coincidence stretched not just the bounds of credulity, but possibility,” (Malla 15). After surviving a plane crash, an unnamed narrator and another survivor, K. Sohail, find themselves stranded on an island anything but deserted. Holding a Wellness Couples retreat, …
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review. “By not claiming space for my art, I am the aporia, the one feigning uncertainty, the one who pretends to others like I don’t know what it is I want to do,” (Purdham 187). A long time advocate for people with disabilities as …
“We were girls…bad girls, neurotic girls, needy girls, wayward girls, selfish girls, girls with Electra complexes, girls trying to fill a void, girls who needed attention, girls with pasts, girls from broken homes, girls who needed discipline, girls desperate to fit in, girls in trouble, girls who couldn’t say no. But for girls like us, …
“If someone looks out at the world…they should not be surprised if the world looks back,” (Leduc 61). In 19th-century Scotland, Josiah MacDougal is banished to Siberia with a small Christian mission after claiming that animals can speak to him. While scrubbing the floor of the church one night, he is visited by God in animal …
“The cells of your body are dying and growing again every day, and you are always in the process of becoming something new. You’re not sure yet who you will be, but you are ready to find out,” (Stevenson ix). N.D. Stevenson looks back at eight years of their life (2011-2019) through mini comics and old …
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review. After her grandmother dies, Kate Galway can’t help but thinking of her beloved aunt’s suicide fifty years before. No one on Meredith Island can forget it, not when Emma was so loved and had such a bright future ahead of her. While clearing …
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review. “The first line/of my eulogy is this: ‘I would cross/the River Styx for you.’ I would,/I honestly would,” (Ramoutar 9, “Baby Cerberus”). Ramoutar’s newest poetry collection does a perfect job of balancing light-heartedness and grief, of looking back towards the past and finding joy …
I received this book from Simon and Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review. “I tried to be happy, but sometime your own happiness comes at the expense of other people’s, doesn’t it? It’s hard to balance being both happy and considerate. I often tried to be both by lying, but that usually made it worse,” (Austin). …
Sarah O'Connor 