“No matter what, you will always be loved. You cannot mess up so badly that you will not be loved,” (Anders 161) Twenty-something Jamie is working on her PhD dissertation, in a strong relationship with their partner Ro, processing their generational trauma, and is a practicing witch. She has a fraught relationship with her mother, Serena, …
“Well, we are the stars…And the stars are us. Every atom in our bodies was once out there. Was once a part of them. To look at the night sky is to look at parts of who you once were, who you may one day be,” (Reid 90). Joan Goodwin lives a quiet life. She …
I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review. Caitlin Galway’s A Song for Wildcats follows characters from postwar Australia, late 1960s France, the Troubles in Ireland, 1930s New York, and 1980s Nevada who are processing grief, trauma, love, and their place in the world after facing adversity. She’s a talent of a …
I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review. “The thing about grief was that you never got used to it. It was survivable, physically, but it still hurt the same each time, like surgery without anesthesia or diving into cold water,” (Michalski 29). Long unhappy with her life and …
I received this book from the editor in exchange for an honest review. “Despair followed me like a lingering shadow. The passage of days and nights became a seamless blur, rendering the concept of time inconsequential…Believing death to be my sole escape, I grappled with the realization that both suicide and homosexuality were considered sins,” (“Convert” by Gemma …
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). …
“The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness,” (Armfield 3). Miri’s wife Leah was only supposed to be gone for three weeks on a simple deep-sea research mission, but when the mission is delayed and the Centre that employed Leah stops calling …
“An angel is a belief. With wings and arms that can carry you. If it lets you down, reject it,” (Kushner 242). Thirty-year-old Prior Walter has recently been diagnosed with AIDS and while undergoing treatment discovers that an angel is calling to him. Unable to deal with Prior’s diagnosis, his partner Louis leaves him and …
“It wasn’t hard to be brave. Not if it was for someone you love,” (McCauley 336). After a tragedy that results in her mother’s death, Marin Blythe finds herself lost in the world until she receives a letter from her favourite horror author, Alice Lovelace and former friend of her mother, offering her a nanny position …
“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 …
Sarah O'Connor 