Category: Reviews & Criticism

  • Hill William, a new novel by Scott McClanahan, reviewed by Thomas Baughman

    Hill William, a new novel by Scott McClanahan, reviewed by Thomas Baughman

    Scott McClanahan is one of the rising stars of the Indie Lit World. He has published several story collections and his novel-in-stories, Crapalachia: A Biography of Place has received considerable praise from reviewers. Now he has published his second novel, which is also a novel-in-stories, which I was excited to read and am now proud…

  • Crystal Eaters, a new novel by Shane Jones, reviewed by Michael Goroff

    Crystal Eaters, a new novel by Shane Jones, reviewed by Michael Goroff

    A few personal notes before I dive full-tilt into this review of Shane Jones’ new novel, Crystal Eaters, that will, hopefully, over the course of the review, become apparently non-self-serving and more edifying about the nature of this book: 1. The day I started reading Crystal Eaters, my cat was in the hospital with kidney…

  • Gabino Iglesias on The Number of Missing, a novel by Adam Berlin

    Gabino Iglesias on The Number of Missing, a novel by Adam Berlin

    September 11 is a date that will forever live in the memories of those who were alive when the Twin Towers crumbled. The devastation was felt around the world, but it touched New Yorkers in ways that only they can understand, especially if the tragedy affected them directly via the loss of a loved one.…

  • Chrono Trigger, nonfiction by Michael P. Williams, reviewed by Jeremy Behreandt

    Chrono Trigger, nonfiction by Michael P. Williams, reviewed by Jeremy Behreandt

    My hat goes off to Michael P. Williams immediately, for it is nothing but ambitious to write on Chrono Trigger. For one thousand readers, one thousand Hamlets; for one thousand players, one thousand Cronos. Released by Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) on the Super Nintendo in 1995, the videogame is considered one of the best JRPGs. Essays…

  • The Holy Ghost People, a dramatic lyric by Joshua Young, reviewed by Merridawn Duckler

    The Holy Ghost People, a dramatic lyric by Joshua Young, reviewed by Merridawn Duckler

    Plays are like frogs. They start life in a form that scarcely seems to resemble the final product. What whirls to life on a dynamic stage is usually begun flat on the page. And, as far as writing goes, written plays don’t get much respect. The Guardian’s theater critic Lyn Gardner thinks it’s the “brazenly…

  • Danny M. Hoey, Jr. on Box Cutters, a fiction chapbook by Samuel Snoek-Brown

    Danny M. Hoey, Jr. on Box Cutters, a fiction chapbook by Samuel Snoek-Brown

    In his debut chapbook, Samuel Snoek-Brown takes readers through the lives of characters who struggle with what it means to live in and make sense of a world that seems to be slipping from the very fingers by which they try to grasp it. In language that is poetic, evocative, and lean, Snoek-Brown has managed…

  • Whittling a New Face in the Dark, poetry by DJ Dolack, reviewed by Jordan Sanderson

    Whittling a New Face in the Dark, poetry by DJ Dolack, reviewed by Jordan Sanderson

    “People quot(e) / when their empathy is down,” observes the speaker of “What They Want Me to Tell You.” Never resorting to “quotes” or platitudes, Whittling a New Face in the Dark exhibits a brutal empathy. The speakers of these poems stand just inside the thresholds of dark rooms and address us in measured statements…

  • Dear Lil Wayne, epistolary poems by Lauren Ireland, reviewed by Daniel M. Shapiro

    Dear Lil Wayne, epistolary poems by Lauren Ireland, reviewed by Daniel M. Shapiro

    Although the epistolary poem has been around since the Roman Empire, it has taken a new turn with the advent of social media. Nowadays, the subjects of letters are much easier to reach; poets don’t need to be as hypothetical in communication. If we like Kevin Bacon’s performance in last night’s episode of The Following,…

  • Deep Ellum, a novel by Brandon Hobson, reviewed by Coleen Muir

    Deep Ellum, a novel by Brandon Hobson, reviewed by Coleen Muir

    Deep Ellum, by Brandon Hobson, follows our twenty-something-year-old narrator, Gideon, through the streets of Deep Ellum, a gloomy district in Dallas, Texas, which he has returned to after his mother’s suicide attempt. During his return, he must grapple with his sister, Meg’s, drug use and her mysterious and possibly abusive relationship with a man named…