Category: Reviews & Criticism
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Review: A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World, by Adam Clay
The poems in Adam Clay’s A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World listen for clarity in the constant noise, the constant static, of time. Like someone who refuses to press the scan button on a stereo, the poems turn the dial one click at a time so as not to miss one clear…
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Review: William Henderson on Adaptation, a young adult novel by Malinda Lo
NOUN: 1. The act or process of adapting. 2. The state of being adapted. 3. Something, such as a device or mechanism, that is changed or changes so as to become suitable to a new or special application or situation. 4. A composition that has been recast into a new form: The play is an…
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“Dog-eared”: William Henderson Reviews Crewel, a young adult novel by Gennifer Albin
Without Katniss Everdeen and the 13 Districts, and all of the other books in which a young woman, despite all odds, triumphs in a world almost-but-not-quite like ours, Adelice Lewys and the world of Arras in Gennifer Albin’s young-adult novel, Crewel, would not exist. The story, even though derivative, gets points for its unique take…
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Review: William Henderson on Earth, Air, Fire, Water: The Elementals, a novel by Francesca Lia Block
Billed as an “adult novel,” The Elementals, by Francesca Lia Block (The Weetzie Bat books, Guarding the Moon) catapults us into the world of Ariel, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, struggling to make sense of her first year of college, her mother’s bout with cancer, and the disappearance of a friend. She’s bullied,…
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“Dog-eared”: William Henderson Reviews The End of Your Life Book Club, a novel by Will Schwalbe
You know from the beginning of Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club that his mother, Mary Anne, is dead. Pancreatic cancer. And you know from the beginning that books have played a major part of Will’s life (he’s the former senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Hyperion Books). And you know from…
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“Dog-eared”: William Henderson Reviews The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
I’ve enjoyed Jasper Fforde since his first novel, The Eyre Affair, introduced us to Thursday Next and her adventures in book world, and then my appreciation for Fforde deepened as he took a break from Thursday and began a series of books based on nursery rhymes and the detective who investigates nursery crimes. Now, Fforde returns…
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“Dog-eared”: William Henderson on Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
To: YouFrom: Heavy Feather ReviewRe: Where’d You Go, Bernadette You know from the beginning that Bernadette Fox is missing, and that her daughter, Bee, is doing what she can to find her mother, including reading e-mails to, from, and about Bernadette; reviewing memorandums sent home from her school, the Galer Street School; reviewing presentation transcripts;…
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“Dog-eared: What Matters Most, How You Feel When You’re Together”: William Henderson on David Leviathan’s Every Day
The main character in Every Day, the new young-adult novel by David Levithan (one-half of the team behind bestsellers like Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist; Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares; Will Grayson, Will Grayson) is both—and neither—boy and girl, and short one reference to gender on the back cover (which may be fixed by now, since…
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“Coming of Age Glacially”: A Review of Jerry Gabriel’s Drowned Boy by Robert Boucheron
Jerry Gabriel quickly sets the scene in his first book of stories, linked by place and characters. In “Boys Industrial School,” the third sentence reads: “Beyond Nate and Donnie Holland there was just the desolate November woods and the endless hills and Milford Run meandering next to the road among the thickets.” The entire book…
Heavy Feather Review 