Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2023 $26.00 / 9781039005273 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * Vancouver Island-born writer Michelle Min Sterling’s debut novel Camp Zero opens in a barren landscape on the shortest day of the year. It’s 2049, and the temperatures are rising. The United States is unbearably hot and the…
Read more 1855 A ‘careful and nuanced approach to dystopia’
The Last Unsuitable Man By Louise Carson Winnipeg, MB: Signature Editions, 2022 $17.95 / 9781773241159 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Louise Carson’s 14th book, The Last Unsuitable Man, is a combination of mystery, music, love affairs gone wrong, and slow-paced twists and thrills. The thing I liked best about it is the division of the…
Read more 1852 Ex-lovers, ex-husbands, and murder
Sunsetter By Curtis LeBlanc Toronto: ECW Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781770416901 Reviewed by Bill Paul * In the fictional prairie town of Perron, it’s a tradition for residents to attend the annual Sunsetter Rodeo and Fair held in late May. For Dallan and Brooks, two close friends in their late teens, it’s an occasion to…
Read more 1851 ‘A town without pity’
What Remains of Elsie Jane by Chelsea Wakelyn Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press, 2023 $24.99 / 9781459750845 Review by Rhea Tregebov * “We witness and absorb the subjective sensory patterns of those we love, just by virtue of spending time with them. And when they’re gone, even when they’re gone for good, a part of them…
Read more 1850 ‘The realities of human mourning’
Atomweight by Emi Sasagawa New Westminster, BC: Tidewater Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781990160165 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Emi Sasagawa’s debut novel, Atomweight, tackles a number of important issues such as racism and homophobia through its central character and narrator, Aki, who leaves familiar privilege in West Vancouver to attend London School of Economics. Her…
Read more 1847 Coming out swinging in London
The Life of Gronsky By Bill Engleson Victoria BC: Tellwell Talent, 2023 $26.95 / 0228888417 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * What does it mean to understand a life? Any novelist brave enough to attempt to distil a character’s life might think of Laurence Sterne’s monumental and classic Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, possibly the…
Read more 1846 An ‘honest expression of humility and truth’
To the Bridge by Yasuko Thanh Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2023 $24.95 / 9780735244672 Reviewed by W.H. New * Specifically, Yasuko Thanh’s To the Bridge concerns a suicide attempt. More generally, it deals with time: the times when characters walked ‘to the bridge’ and sat, a different time when one of them jumped, and the time before…
Read more 1845 Tremors
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2023 $32.99 / 9781487009915 Reviewed by Bill Paul * In the novel, The Librarianist, characters have names like Mr. Baker-Bailey, Chance and Chicky Bitsch, and the one-armed Mr. More. Patrick’s deWitt’s fifth novel is set in Portland, Oregon and follows Bob Comet as he grows…
Read more 1835 A simple twist of fate
To Track a Traitor: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023 $18.95 / 9781771513876 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Iona Whishaw doesn’t allow her heroine much time for grass growing underfoot in this, the tenth in the Lane Winslow Mystery series. It is spring 1948, and fast on the heels of…
Read more 1832 ‘Rife with suspects and motives’
Trickster Trilogy by Eden Robinson Son of a Trickster Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2017. $21.00 / 9780345810793 Trickster Drift Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2018. $21.00 / 9780735273443 Return of the Trickster Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2021. $21.00 / 9780735273474 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop * I’ve never been a big fan of magical realism in fiction. While I get…
Read more 1828 A Trickster for our times
Other People’s Secrets by Meredith Hambrock Toronto: Crooked Lane Books, 2022 $37.99 / 9781639100989 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch Oakwood Hills is a lakeside resort—a place for summer vacationers to escape from the city and flock to blueish waters. It’s surrounded by beaches, cabins, and sunshine. For the characters of Other People’s Secrets, Oakwood Hills is…
Read more 1821 Treasure maps, hangovers, inner turmoil
Wreck Bay: An Amanda Doucette Mystery by Barbara Fradkin Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2023 $21.99 / 9781459743878 Reviewed by Bill Paul * Amanda Doucette has worked overseas as an aid worker and across Canada with men and women who have struggled, “battered by addiction.” She’s nearing forty and has a history of trauma. While organizing activities…
Read more 1816 An ‘atmosphere of isolation and suspicion’
In the Defense of Liberty: a novel by Keith Maillard Calgary: Freehand Books, 2023 $24.95 / 9781990601415 Reviewed by Lenore Rowntree * When the story opens, it’s the middle of the afternoon, in the month of June. Mason is in a stranger’s truck rolling toward Merida University through “beautiful goddamned Ohio Country, all that green…
Read more 1815 A ‘stacking of visions’
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
Such a Lovely Afternoon: Stories by Patti Flather Toronto: Inanna, 2022 $22.95 / 9781771338844 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The nine stories of North Vancouver’s Patti Flather’s debut collection, Such a Lovely Afternoon, are so crammed with concrete details and believable problems that it’s impossible not to run the stories as short movies in your…
Read more 1812 Families in dysfunction
Ruby Red Skies by Taslim Burkowicz Halifax and Winnipeg: Roseway Publishing an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, 2022 $24.00 / 9781773635606 Reviewed by Steven Brown * Ruby is not happy. She feels taken for granted by both husband and daughter. Her opinions don’t matter. Her husband talks down to her, openly mocks her, is oblivious to…
Read more 1810 Intrigue, then and now
Patterson House by Jane Cawthorne Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2022 $22.95 / 9781771339391 Reviewed by Valerie Green * In her novel Patterson House, Jane Cawthorne has produced a warm yet tragic story of a once-wealthy Toronto family who still own a stately mansion known as Patterson House. Cawthorne begins in 1873 with the ghostly voice of…
Read more 1808 The rich and the desperate
The Vicar’s Knickers: The Mildly Catastrophic Misadventures of Tony Vicar, Book 2 by Vince R. Ditrich Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2022 $19.99 / 9781459747289 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * The Liquor Vicar, the first of Vince R. Ditrich’s three book series, introduces wannabe musician Tony Vicar. He’s missed his big break by a couple of years…
Read more 1803 The locals of Tyee Lagoon
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell, illustrations by William Kurelek, 75th anniversary edition Calgary: Freehand Books, 2022 (first published by Macmillan of Canada, 1947) $44.95 / 9781990601125 Reviewed by Amy Whitmore * A pre-schooler knocks on a minister’s door in search of God’s help in seeking revenge. Another pre-schooler navigates town with his…
Read more 1801 It’s what boys do
Last Winter by Carrie Mac Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House), 2023 $24.95 / 9781039005198 Reviewed by W.H. New * Readers who finish Carrie Mac’s Last Winter and then turn to her biographical note will recognize that many of the themes of her novel arise from lived experience: a declared identity as queer and…
Read more 1797 Choosing to speak