Book Review

Ophelia After All

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie. Feiwel & Friends Publishing, 2022. $17, 352 pages.

She is just like any other 17-year-old! She’s a pretty, witty, rose-gardening, prom-obsessed,
boy-loving girl. She’s Ophelia, after all! Or is she?

Racquel Marie’s debut YA …

This poetry collection is Tishani Doshi’s eighth book. The collection is separated into five sections and covers everything from war and the inevitability of death to systemic misogyny, most of it being inspired by events, people, or other published pieces from the past and present.

The Sentence

Book Review by Ella Nielsen

The Sentence is the latest novel from Louise Erdrich, a prolific, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Ojibwe descent. It is a sprawling work that chronicles main character Tookie’s journey from one-time body smuggler who wanted to impress a girl and earn $26,000 to incarcerated person to bookstore employee and wife. While The Sentence sells itself as a ghost story and is certainly not lacking in the ghost department, it is primarily a pandemic story, illustrating how the onset of COVID-19 affects Tookie, her husband and her stepdaughter as well as her family of bookstore co-workers.

No Gods, No Monsters

Book Review by Catherine Ashley

What would you do if, on a random Tuesday morning, you came across a video showing police body cam footage of a werewolf being shot? Would you believe it? Would you care? Cadwell Turnbull’s No Gods, No Monsters poses the question: what if everything that goes bump in the night were real and how would we treat them?

White Smoke

Book Review by Breanna Henry

“You ever wake up in bed and feel like you’re not...alone?” Shadows pass through the hallways and rooms. Kitchen cabinets open and dishes show up in places they weren’t before. Voices seep through the walls. And if she hears one more creak in this old, dusty house, she’s going to scream. She tries to brush her fears under the non-existent rug, but a much more sinister truth awaits her.

All of Us Villains

Book Review by Melanie Hucklebridge

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman. TOR Teen, 2021. $18.99, 384 pages.

The time to embrace your monstrousness has come. Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s first installment in their new series, All of Us …

The Cabinet

Book Review by Éabha Puirséil

The Cabinet by Un-Su Kim, trans. Sean Lin Halbert. Angry Robot, 2021. $14.99, 304 pages.

“If by some chance you intend on reading this book to the end, it would be best if you rid yourself now of any fanciful …

The Rock Eaters

Book Review by Lisa Ahima

The Rock Eaters by Brenda Peynado. Penguin Books, 2021. $16, 276 pages.

What business does a story about segregationist America not wanting (literal) aliens in vintage toy stores have in the same short story collection where readers follow a post-grad,

…

The Scapegoat

Book Review by Clarise Quintero

The Scapegoat by Sara Davis, FSG, 2021, $26.00, 210 pages

Murder mysteries often go by a formula. Somebody is killed, the protagonist goes on a search for their killer, stumbling upon multiple red herrings and tripping up on the clues. …

Double Effect

Book Review by Michelle Antoinette Nicholson

Double Effect by Martha Serpas. Louisiana State University Press, 2020. $17.95, 73 Pages

Fans of Martha Serpas’ work—with its imagery and language, bordering on local color; its treatment of spiritual conflicts and loss; and its formal regard for semantics and …

Book Review

Footer