"I could not hear even one of them over the screaming wind. But that is a sight that will never leave me. The waves of earth crashing over the prairie. The sky exhaling all her birds." Karen Russell, The Antidote, pg. 23 Uz, Nebraska, is full of ghosts; ghosts of regrets, of accidents, of mistakes…
"I've seen a body taken by the sea, and the state of it will rid a man of any hubris. We are soberingly weak under its hammer. This woman, delivered by such a sea--one more powerful than most--is clinging on with a bewildering defiance." Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore, pg. 5 The sea is many…
Laugh all you want, but I like a nice laundromat, especially at night. They’re infinitely more pleasant than that creepy laundry room in the basement of your college dorm. They’re cozy, even when they’re brightly lit. They smell nice. The rumble of the machines is soothing. In short, laundromats are charming. Yeonnam Dong’s Smiley Laundromat…
'"I host a radio show," Aiden says calmly. "Maya called in to ask for dating advice." My hand clenches around the phone. "Dating advice? She's twelve." "She didn't call for herself. She called for you." He makes a small huff of amusement. "My name is Aiden Valentine and you're live with Heartstrings, Baltimore's romance hotline.”'…
When I first heard the premise of Ava Robinson’s Definitely Better Now, I wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull it off. “The story of a recovering alcoholic attempting to rebuild her life while navigating an office romance,” in my experience, is rarely followed by the words, “I am surely in for a moving-yet-hilarious time.”…
“The whole wreck heaves, and then the two men are lifting something from within. A body in white, soaked through with rainwater, her long chestnut hair streaming free from her limp head like a flag of a wrecked ship. Darkness rises all around me, and I sink to the earth.” Kat Dunn, Hungerstone, pg. 27…
'"You like her too much," Zamena says. Nobles are not like us. Never forget it." "She is different." "Why? Because she was born common? She isn't common now."' Costanza Casati, Babylonia, pg. 173 I'm always one to make sweeping predictions for what the new year will bring, literary-wise. Last year, I predicted that 2024 would…
“They stared down at the ground in stony imitation of the graveyard angels, without the blank unblinking eyes or patchy beards of lichen. When they heard Edie’s footsteps round the Drewalt obelisk, they looked up and she looked down and realized that what they were actually staring at was a hole in the ground.” M.L.…
Who doesn't love a grumpy old man sticking his nose in other folks' business? In this case it's a grumpy old pony sticking his snout in his other people's business. Like Marcellus the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures, we have an animal intervening in human affairs and ultimately, saving the day. Pony after being sold by…
"The girl's shoulders stopped trembling at "friend." Amazing how the word, so common and ordinary among those who practiced plain speech, could lift the spirits unfamiliar with the custom. Slowly, the girl unlaced her fingers and picked up her head. Pearl gasped. Cook had gone quiet. Abby refused to react." Caroline Woods, The Mesmerist, pg.…
