Startlement, New and Selected Poems by Ada Limón Review by Isa Sanchez-Esparza
Milkweed EditionsSeptember 2025232 pp9781639550517 As an aspiring young poet and writer of color myself, reading the work of the 24th poet laureate (who is also the first Latina woman to ever hold that title) left me with a buzz that I can’t quite explain. After a...
Review: The Definition of Nesting Dolls in Daydreamers by Alvin Lu
I have always been fascinated by the Matryoshka doll. A wooden figure of a woman, wrapped in a painted sarafan. Her body is round, and there’s a seam running around her midsection. When you turn her top and bottom half in opposite directions, they separate, revealing...
Review: Drinking the Ocean by Saad Omar Khan
Saad Omar Khan’s debut novel Drinking the Ocean is a breathtaking exploration of what it means to love, to grapple with heartbreak, and to continue to love despite it all. Drinking the Ocean follows Murad, a young man who cannot seem to forget Sofi, the woman he once...
Review of Mortar by Christopher Shipman
Mortar, Christopher Shipman's upcoming poetry collection, invites us to sit alongside him as he grapples with the trauma that haunts his family after the murder of his grandmother. Mortar is the cement-like mixture that lays between bricks in construction. As the...
The Politics of the Grishaverse: Analyzing the Political Undertones of Six of Crows
“Six people, but a thousand ways this insane plan could go wrong.” Young Adult, Fantasy, and Science Fiction novels are rising in both readership and authorship, myself included. As an ardent reader, when I have time outside of college, I love to enjoy the increasing...
Review: Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi
Review: Small Town Horror by Ronald MalfiPage Count: 392Price: $17.99 (paperback), $27.99 (hardcover)ISBN: 9781803365657Publisher: Titan Books Ronald Malfi weaves a brilliant web of guilt, falsehoods, buried (or drowned) truths and, of course, ghosts and witchcraft in...
Review: Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops
2024, Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press288 pp., paperback $14, eBook $12ISBN: 9781773068893TW: homophobia and domestic abuse “Life isn’t an RPG, you giant dork.” “I know.” He pulls another volume off the shelf and reads the back cover, then pauses. “But can you...
Review: Tannery Bay by Steven Dunn and Katie Jean Shinkle
Tannery Bay by Steven Dunn and Katie Jean ShinkleThe University of Alabama Press, 2024199 pages, $18.47ISBN-13: 978-1-57366-205-5 Tannery Bay by Steven Dunn and Katie Jean Shinkle was an odd read (which I mean in a complimentary sense). Though it is not a debut novel...
The “What If?” in Storytelling: Villains, Retellings and Writing Prompts
It’s fascinating to think if you change a moment or two in a story it can change the projection of said story. What if Simba from the Lion King never returned to his birth place? What if Voldemort did successfully kill off Harry? What if Cruella Deville actually did...
What’s in a Name: A Word on Pen Names
Whenever I imagine my dream job as an author, I picture myself writing under a different name—a pen name. It’s been this way since I was twelve years old, scribbling furiously in the pages of my notebook. Over the years, my reasons why and the names I’ve invented have...
Review: Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
MonstrilioGerardo Sámano CórdovaZando ProjectsMarch 2023ISBN 978–1–63893–160–7 Grief eats you up from the inside, as is shown in Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s debut novel Monstrilio, published under Zando Projects. Córdova’s novel is an exploration of grief, identity,...
Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
ISBN: 9781649374042by Rebecca YarrosEntangled Publishing, 2023, 512 pp., $14.99, paper “A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.” ― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing In a world of betrayal, secrets, heartache, misfits, and cutthroat...
