“A child’s worry was not like an adult’s. It gnawed deep, and was so unnecessary. Why did people not realize children could withstand the truth? Why did adults insist on filling children with the deceptions their own parents had laid on them, when surely they remembered how it had felt to lie in bed and …
“When I’m in the theatre I feel held. I feel simultaneously safe and like something very dangerous is about to happen, and that dangerous thing is the wall of my chest peeling back — slowly, so slowly, in time with the curtain rising. And if the play is my play then everybody present can gather …
“All scary stories have two sides…Like the bright and dark of the moon. If you’re brave enough to listen and wise enough to stay to the end, the stories can shine a light on the good in the world. They can guide your muzzles. They can help you survive,” (Heidicker 5). On a dark autumn night, …
“Little Natalie, never rest until you have uncovered your essential self. Remember that. Somewhere, deep inside you, hidden by all sorts of fears and worries and petty little thoughts is a clean pure being made of radiant colours,” (Jackson 42). Seventeen-year-old Natalie Waite is eager to start at Bennington College. There she’ll be away from her …
“However much Connie’s absence permeated my every though, I had never once said so out loud. Never recounted to anyone the lost, dark-edged hours, knowing that the words themselves, the weight of them in my mouth, would be like drowning, and all at once her disappearance would cease to be a series of frantic flashes, …
“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 …
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, …
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 …
“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 …
“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 …
Sarah O'Connor 