Shirley Jackson’s classic haunted house tale The Haunting of Hill House is one of the best executed examples of the genre anywhere in literature. The book’s pervading sense of dread… Read more “Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House”
Category: Fiction Reviews
Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle
“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at… Read more “Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle”
Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes
No writer has ever understood the sad, strange, ecstatic wonder of Midwestern childhood like Ray Bradbury. The curious freedoms granted us away from cities, the teetering inner… Read more “Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes”
A Review of The Girl Who Slept with God by Val Brelinski
Van Brelinski’s The Girl Who Slept with God tells the story of an Evangelical Christian family–the Quanbecks–in Idaho in 1970, focusing on the middle daughter, Jory, who turns… Read more “A Review of The Girl Who Slept with God by Val Brelinski”
A Review of Saving Julian by Mason Stokes
Paul Drucker is a middle-aged preacher and psychology professor with a thriving gay conversion ministry, a successful book called Saving Our Boys from the Gay Menace, and a secret–he’s… Read more “A Review of Saving Julian by Mason Stokes”
A Review of Love and Other Wounds: Stories by Jordan Harper
Jordan Harper’s first collection of short stories, Love and Other Wounds, might be the most brutal collection of short fiction I’ve ever read. Fast, unrelenting, and brief, the book… Read more “A Review of Love and Other Wounds: Stories by Jordan Harper”
Teeth and Bones and No Home to Haunt: A Review of Colin Winnette’s Haints Stay
The Old West of Colin Winnette’s newest book is one denuded of the romance of American goodness, the country’s self-myth of inherent decency and indomitable success. There… Read more “Teeth and Bones and No Home to Haunt: A Review of Colin Winnette’s Haints Stay”
Whisky and the Werewolf: A Review of Andrew Ervin’s Burning Down George Orwell’s House
Ray Welter has no idea who he is anymore. A successful thirtysomething Chicago ad executive who made his name on a campaign that exponentially increased the sales… Read more “Whisky and the Werewolf: A Review of Andrew Ervin’s Burning Down George Orwell’s House”
A Review of The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
There is no other fiction author I know of who handles her characters with the grace of Jhumpa Lahiri. Perhaps related, there is no author I know of… Read more “A Review of The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri”
Camp Classic: The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins
The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins (Soft Skull Press, 2015) is more than anything a love story. It’s a love story to movies, and more… Read more “Camp Classic: The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins”
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