Content warning: child abuse, ritual sacrifice This novella was not quite what I was expecting. It tells the story of seventeen-year-old Silvie, who, along with her parents, is accompanying a group of university students and their professor on a 2-week "experimental archaeology" camp to reenact Iron Age life in northern England. Silvie is not a … Continue reading Heat, Haunting, and Heartbreak: Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
A heat wave book if I ever read one. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi is a book that colourfully conjures sun, sweat, and that shimmer in the air on a hot, hot day. Oh, yes, and a little splash of blood, too. Simon & Schuster, 2022 It is … Continue reading Furiously Alive: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
I first heard of this anthology when Catherynne M. Valente tweeted about it back in May. She said: "Please please buy this, I genuinely think my story in it is one of my best, if not my actual best ever." Well. As a huge fan of hers, how could I refuse? And then...and then I … Continue reading Someone in Time: Tales of Time Crossed Romance
Content warning: transphobia, abuse, sexual assault One of the perks of having a wildly out of control TBR list is that sometimes you don't remember exactly what a certain book is or why it's on there. You just recognize its title and author one day in the library, and a little bell goes off in … Continue reading A Tonic Against Despair: Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryko Aoki
The Awakening is one of those books that has been sitting on my bookshelf for ages, unread. I finally sat down and read it, and now I have Some Thoughts. The introductory note in my Dover Thrift edition teases with the following: Chopin's second and last novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899 and aroused … Continue reading (Sea) Salty Thoughts on The Awakening by Kate Chopin
I am eternally searching for murder mysteries that scratch a very specific itch. I have extremely high standards and a very particular set of criteria for my ideal mystery novel, which are: The mystery must be a satisfying puzzle; there can be none of that nonsense where the author springs a crucial piece of information … Continue reading A Murder Mystery After My Heart: Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely
I've been a fan of Rainbow Rowell for a long time. She is one of my all-time favourite comfort-read authors, and Fangirl has long been my number one pick of her books (I wrote one of my first blog posts about it). However, these days the Simon Snow trilogy has elbowed its way to the … Continue reading In Which I Talk at Length About Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow Trilogy, and Eat Sour Cherry Scones
I’m back with another slight book full of gorgeous moments and understated beauty. These may very well be my favourite types of books. Kuessipan is the debut novel of Innu writer Naomi Fontaine, and it was published in 2011, when she was only twenty-three years old. (The English-language edition, translated by David Homel, was published … Continue reading Small Glimpses of a Greater Constellation: Kuessipan by Naomi Fontaine
In an abandoned royal compound surrounded by haunted birch barrens and a glowing lake, an old peasant woman spins stories. A young cleric listens, and writes records. A magical bird listens, and remembers. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo is a small and perfectly spare novella. In spite of its brevity, it … Continue reading Come for the Intrigue, Stay for the Impeccability: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Toronto is a city I know well. As a child and teenager growing up a couple of hours west of this metropolis, it was the go-to "big city," the place where you could shop for fancy things, eat special food, go to galleries, museums, concerts, clubs. As an adult, I lived in Toronto for a … Continue reading The Ghost of a Place — The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood
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