“People love an idea, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Even if they only know how to do exactly the wrong thing,” (Machado 228). In her memoir, Carmen Maria Machado finds the words, after years and difficulty, to articulate what it was like being in an abusive same-sex relationship. Part fairy-tale, horror …
“Whether we realize it or not, we often find ways to alleviate feelings of existential aloneness through the seeking of unity…Food, entertainment, success, sex, relationships, busyness, gossip — there are plenty of ways to divert our attention from the unavoidable, terrifying aloneness of human existence,” (Bolz-Web, Nadia, 21). Sex has long been a taboo subject in …
I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review. “That morning he had waited at the station for the train to start running again, his head low, body shaking, and he understood why people killed, why people stopped feeling, why people stopped believing in God. He heard the first train …
“We are restless people by nature. We roam, from one house to another, one city to the next. There is a limit to how long we can stay somewhere before people start to notice,”(Moore 13). Seventeen-year-old Pieta, or as she’s called Pie, is invisible. Not in the metaphorical sense, but really truly invisible. She is …
“Shame is a way of life here. It’s stocked in the vending machines, stuck like gum under desks, spoken in the morning devotionals,” (McQuiston 288). Four years after moving with her moms from sunny California to False Beach, Alabama and attending Willowgrove Christian Academy, Chloe Green is so close to winning she can almost taste …
“they bisect the frozen river, vacant lots, the barren school field — all roads lead to the Pit.” – Desire Paths (Borin 3). I was lucky enough to get to visit The Westminster Hotel, or as it’s affectionately called The Pit, when I visited Dawson City last fall. When my dad had visited the previous winter he …
I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review. “An act of faith. Faith—true faith—does not come without grappling in the shadows; faith never comes free from doubt” (Rauch 100). Sara Rauch is in a long-term relationship with a woman when she begins a low-residency MFA. While there, she finds …
“It sounds wild, I know, but racism is a spectrum and they all participate in it in some way. They don’t all have white hoods or call us mean things… But racism isn’t just about that – it’s not about being nice or mean. Or good versus bad. It’s bigger than that,” (Àbíké-Íyímídé 166). At …
Sarah O'Connor 