“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 …
“Is it some disorder of the mind that causes me to see things, hear things, that then vanish as though they never were?” (Gish 230). Spinster Ada Byrd has just started a teaching position in Lowry Bridge, an isolated town where no one knows of her disgrace and shame from her last post. As she establishes …
“God, she whispers and it’s all she whispers, over and over and over again. God, I’ll do anything. Please, God… And then He appears,” (Summers 9). In 2011 Bea’s younger sister Lo would have died in the car accident that killed their parents if it weren’t for Lev Warren. After finding Bea praying in the chapel he brought …
“Some are born anxious, some achieve anxiety, and some have anxiety thrust upon them. I am lucky enough to have been blessed with all three,” (Donahue 7). I heard Anne Donahue read from her collection of essays a few years back (the same literary festival where I heard Claudia Dey read from Heartbreaker, so I guess I’m …
“Some of us are forced to eat spring mix in the half-dark of our low-ceilinged studio apartments and still expand inexplicably. Some of us expand at the mere contemplation of what you shovel so carelessly, so dancingly into your smug little mouth,” (Awad 74-75). I’ve been a fan of Mona Awad’s since first reading Bunny but it’s only …
“This is what I know: She left last night,” (Dey 3). Billie Jean Fontaine is missing. Seventeen years earlier she arrived to a smalltown far in the territory and now she’s left her teenaged daughter Pony, her husband The Heavy, her devoted dog, the teenager Supernatural who always seems to know more than anyone, and the …
I’m very grateful to the Literary Review of Canada for reaching out to me to review Sarah Henstra’s newest novel The Lost Tarot. Read my full review on their Substack, Bookworm!
“I wish I imagined things less. I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. I do think I am capable of doing something bad…I’m worried that at any moment, I am liable to be taken over by my parasite, and that I will hurt someone,” (Austin 43). Enid’s trying her best. She’s reconnecting with her estranged …
I’m very grateful to the Literary Review of Canada for reaching out to me to review Secret Sex ed. by Russell Smith. Read my full review on their website, or in print!
Sarah O'Connor 