“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 …
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). …
“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 …
“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 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 …
“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 …
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, …
“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 …
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review. “We are all having / the same nightmare, overcome / by an invisible, relentless enemy / completely unable to protect ourselves,” (Connors, “Virus”). Patrick Connors newest poetry collection covers a variety of themes mostly connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. Connors touches on topics …
Sarah O'Connor 