A veteran writer’s new novel is defined by meticulous, expansive, and breathtaking world-building. Sometimes, though, too much is too much. —Zoe McKenna reviews Blackheart Man, by Nalo Hopkinson (Toronto: Simon & Schuster / Saga Press, 2024) $34.99 / 9781668005101
“[F]or those who want to understand something of human journeys—and how to mourn, how to live with grief—” this YA novel “is a study in how we might navigate.” —Alison Acheson reviews Where Was Goodbye?, by Janice Lynn Mather (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2024) $23.99 / 9781665903950
Full of lore, a “refreshing, earnest, and hopeful” debut for YA readers captivates and entertains. —Zoe McKenna reviews Why We Play With Fire, by Giselle Vriesen (Toronto: 100 Block Futures, 2024) $23.99 CAD / 9781955905312
“…the book presents a moving account of athletic and life achievement despite constant struggle to be treated with basic dignity.” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Races: The Trials & Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family by Valerie Jerome (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2023) $24.95 / 9781773102900
A “lively musical and political education” for readers young and old. —Ron Verzuh reviews Rise Up and Sing!: Power, Protest and Activism in Music, by Andrea Warner (illustrated by Louise Reimer) (Vancouver: Greystone Kids, 2023) $26.95 / 9781771648981
Appealing debut novel is “full of feelings, many of them exceedingly negative.” —Jessica Poon reviews Broughtupsy, by Christina Cooke (Toronto: Anansi, 2024) $22.99 / 9781487012762
Praise in a minor key for this year’s ‘best of’ in short fiction.
Jessica Poon reviews Best Canadian Stories 2024 by Lisa Moore (editor)
(Windsor: Biblioasis, 2023) $23.95 / 9781771965668
When we launched The British Columbia Review — then The Ormsby Review — in September 2016, little did we expect that seven years later we’d post our 2000th review. I’m grateful to everyone — reviewers, publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers — for making it such a success and promoting BC writers, writing, and culture. It…
Read more No. 2000 for the BC Review!
Class Warrior: The Selected Works of E.T. Kingsley by Benjamin Isitt and Ravi Malhotra (eds.) Athabasca: Athabasca University Press, 2022 $34.95 / 9781778290046 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Chances are you’ve never heard of Eugene Thornton (E.T.) Kingsley. Chances are also good that if you had heard of him you might not like him or…
Read more 1927 Impossiblist Maverick
Harrowings By Cecily Nicholson Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2022 $19.95 / 9781772014051 Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon * A bright red tractor churning Southern Ontario soil, BC orchards, waving prairie wheat fields. Christian uplift, and hardscrabble Euro-immigrant toil. All idealized scenes that participate in a specific farming imaginary that lets some Canadians eat our veggies without much bile—mostly…
Read more 1856 Connecting to ‘a vital abolitionist tradition’
Welcome Trevor and Brett by Richard Mackie * On behalf of the Board of the Ormsby Literary Society and our Advisory Board I’d like to welcome Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic as interim editors of The British Columbia Review for the year May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. The position was made possible…
Read more 1813 Welcome Trevor and Brett
Between Good and Evil: The Stolen Girls of Boko Haram by Mellissa Fung Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2023 $36.99 / 9781443456081 Reviewed by Isabel Nanton * Canadian Journalist Mellissa Fung has written an important book which amplifies her documentary Captive, the story of three Nigerian girls captured by Boko Haram (which translates as “Western education is…
Read more 1785 Lost in Sambisa Forest
Announcing the BC Review interview series by Richard Mackie * In November 2022, at the most recent board meeting of the Ormsby Literary Society, the chair, Byron Sheardown, suggested that we open a YouTube channel and start an interview series. Board member Trevor Marc Hughes jumped at the suggestion. “I’ve got filmmaking experience,” he said,…
Read more 1757 Announcing interview series
Uncertain Kin by Janice Lynn Mather Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Doubleday Canada), 2022 $29.95 / 9780385697156 Reviewed by Alison Acheson * A dusty rooster and a badly tuned radio woke Priscilla just before six. It’s perfect detail that draws you in to Janice Lynn Mather’s world. Once there (with one exception, a story of…
Read more 1755 God on the dock
Built on a Dream An audio piece by Anne Watson * Introduction. Built on a Dream includes the voices of a narrator, a storyteller, and a historian. Positionality and self-conscious awareness matter in this experimental piece. I’ve written it different ways over the years: this is my first attempt using multiple voices. Pierre Bourdieu’s “Biographical…
Read more 1745 Built on a Dream
The Tree Whisperer: Writing Poetry by Living in the World by Harold Rhenisch Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2021 $29.95 / 9781554472314 Reviewed by Adrienne Fitzpatrick * I have spent the last few weeks in the company of a tree whisperer going from tree to tree on Sylix lands, absorbing the fruits revealed by light and…
Read more 1641 The wisdom of trees
Junie by Chelene Knight Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2022 $23.00 / 9781771667685 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Strangers to Vancouver or its history before the city’s breakneck condo-ization might wonder about “the Village,” the comfortable place June-Anne Lancaster—the protagonist of Chelene Knight’s appealing first novel — affectionately sees as her hometown. In the vicinity of Main…
Read more 1559 Coming of age in Hogan’s Alley
TELEVISION DOCUSERIES REVIEW: British Columbia: An Untold History by Kevin Eastwood, Writer and Director Burnaby: British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, 2022 Reviewed by Patrick A. Dunae * Knowledge Network, ‘British Columbia’s public educational broadcaster,’ has produced a compelling documentary series entitled British Columbia: An Untold History. The production qualities are superb. Each episode of the four-part…
Read more 1405 Colonialism corrective
Black Canada: A History. Fiftieth Anniversary Edition by Robin W. Winks, with a foreword by George Elliott Clarke Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021 (second edition; first published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and Yale University Press, 1971) $32.95 / 9780773516328 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Black Canada: What I should have learned in high…
Read more 1390 Black Canada revisited
Prophet Against Slavery. Benjamin Lay: A Graphic Novel by David Lester, with Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle (editors) Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Beacon Press), 2021 $20.00 / 9780807081792 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Who was Benjamin Lay? A radical 18th-century Quaker challenges slavery It is fair to ask who the central figure is in…
Read more 1327 Who was Benjamin Lay?