My Two-Faced Luck by Brett Josef Grubisic Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781989689271 Reviewed by Geoffrey D. Morrison * In My Two-Faced Luck, Brett Josef Grubisic concludes his River Bend Trilogy with a novel that movingly fulfills the promise of its unique and ambitious premise. As with the other River Bend books,…
Read more 1234 A matter of thwarted desire
In Singing, He Composed a Song by Jeremy Stewart Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2021 (Brave & Brilliant Series) $19.99 / 9781773852201 Reviewed by Jeff Stychin * Have you ever woken up in a haze or dream-like state? Or wondered how long spans of time have seemingly disappeared from memory? In Singing, He Composed a…
Read more 1231 Coming of age in Prince George
Through the Gate by Kay Jordan Victoria: Kay Publishing, 2020 $18.89 / 9781999227906 Reviewed by Valerie Green * In her book Through the Gate, Kay Jordan has created a story that will undoubtedly inspire young students to enjoy history in a fun way. Rather than give her young readers dates and a myriad of names…
Read more 1229 Downstairs drama at Craigdarroch
One London Day by C.C. Humphreys Two Hats Creative, 2021 $20.00 / 9781989988046 For paperback see here; for ebook see here; for audiobook (read by the author) see here. Reviewed by Alma Lee * Chris Humphreys writes and lives on Salt Spring Island. An actor, playwright, and novelist, he has published 20 books — historical…
Read more 1226 Severin and the Russian escort
The Comic by Stan Rogal Montréal: Guernica Editions, 2020 $20.00 / 9781771834827 Reviewed by Peter Babiak * The Comic is a novel about a sad sack of a college English teacher, Mark Nowakowski, who runs up against surreal Kafkaesque forces when he breaches the unwritten rules on linguistic expression that have become hot-button issues in…
Read more 1224 No laughing matter
Goth Girls of Banff by John O’Neill Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2020 $19.95 / 9781988732954 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The author of a novel and four poetry collections, John O’Neill is a former high-school Dramatic Arts and English teacher who now lives and writes in Toronto. His Goth Girls of Banff presents short stories about…
Read more 1220 Gothic mountain fiction
INTERVIEW: Lesley Krueger with The British Columbia Review Born and brought up in Vancouver, Lesley Krueger is a novelist and screenwriter. She is the author of seven books, including the critically acclaimed novels, The Corner Garden (2003) and Mad Richard (2017). As a filmmaker, she has worked as a screenwriter, script doctor, story editor, and co-producer…
Read more 1217 Interview with Lesley Krueger
Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road by Marion Quednau Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2021 $21.95 / 9780889713987 Reviewed by Kathy Mezei * The short story is a quirky form; it has certain novelistic features—characters, narrators, setting, plots (necessarily curtailed) and certain poetic features—brevity, emotional shock or surprise, intensity of language, but it marches staunchly to the…
Read more 1211 Resisting the conventions
Lost Souls of Lakewood: The History and Mystery of Blaylock’s Mansion by Charlie Hodge with Dan McGauley Victoria: FriesenPress, 2021 $18.99 / 9781039100428 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * The Ghosts of Blaylock’s Mansion: A Romp Through the History of a BC architectural marvel is fun but lacks historical verification Mom used to drive us out…
Read more 1210 The ghosts of Blaylock’s mansion
Three novellas reviewed by Miranda Marini: Winter Wren by Theresa Kishkan Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2016 $18.00 / 9780978005450 * Tower by Frances Boyle Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018 $20.00 / 9780978005467 * Wanda by Barbara Lambert Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2021 $20.00 / 9780978005474 Reviewed…
Read more 1209 Novellas of the coast and interior
INTERVIEW: Dustin Cole with The British Columbia Review. We caught up with Dustin Cole at his brother’s house in Slave Lake, Alberta, to learn the circumstances and inspiration for Notice (Nightwood Editions, 2020), the story of Dylan Levett, a dishwasher from Alberta caught in the gears of renoviction from his apartment on Main Street. “It’s summer 2017…
Read more 1206 Interview with Dustin Cole
The Octopus Has Three Hearts by Rachel Rose Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $22.95 / 9781771622882 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Rachel Rose’s first collection of short stories, The Octopus Has Three Hearts, is as terrific as readers of her poetry would expect. The 14 stories feature various characters in different kinds of crises,…
Read more 1205 Needy people & creature comforts
Music from a Strange Planet by Barbara Black Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781773860589 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Barbara Black’s website informs us that Music from a Strange Planet, her debut short story collection, “began as a series of flash fictions exploring the intersection of human and insect existence” and “metamorphosed” into…
Read more 1204 Thresholds and transformations
Wild Bird by Leanne Baugh Markham, ON: Red Deer Press, 2021 $14.95 / 9780889956360 Reviewed by Valerie Green * A very vivid opening scene in Leanne Baugh’s book Wild Bird might well seem a little too graphic for young adult readers. Nonetheless, it is a necessary opening to a story about the hardships faced by…
Read more 1203 Kate Harding steps up
INTERVIEW: Marion Quednau with The Ormsby Review Marion Quednau has won numerous awards for both her fiction and her poetry, including a National Magazine Award, and the People’s Choice Award when shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her fiction has received critical acclaim, the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, when the late Mordecai Richler…
Read more 1200 Interview with Marion Quednau
Wanda by Barbara Lambert Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2021 $20.00 / 9780978005474 Reviewed by David Stouck * Most of the fiction written by Barbara Lambert has been set outside of Canada. Her prize-winning stories, collected as A Message for Mr. Lazarus (2000), take place largely in Costa Rica, her full-length novel,…
Read more 1197 The orchardist’s daughter
Night Watch: The Vet Suite by Gillian Wigmore Picton, ON: Invisible Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781988784588 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Veterinarians are absurdly villainized, unsung heroes. After my Australian Shepherd suffered THC poisoning, my respect and appreciation for veterinarians has only grown. Mercifully, Gillian Wigmore, daughter of a veterinarian, has written three novellas combined…
Read more 1184 Veterinary grace & suite
ESSAY: Why I love Lucy Maud by Carol Volkart * When I first met Lucy Maud Montgomery in her journals a few months ago, she was a sparkling flirt of 14 tumbling off sleds in winter snowbanks, losing her hat and laughing, laughing, laughing. When I said goodbye to her recently, she was an anguished…
Read more 1183 Why I love Lucy Maud
Lucky Jack Road: A Stella Mosconi Mystery by J.G. Toews Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2020 $19.99 / 9781771615082 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * This, the second in the Stella Mosconi Mystery series, invites delving into mystery subgenres. Lucky Jack Road has the hallmarks of a cozy mystery: the amateur detective, typically female, practises her sleuthing…
Read more 1182 Death on Elephant Mountain
A Brief View from the Coastal Suite by Karen Hofmann Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781774390177 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * If, come the apocalypse, some powers wanted to recreate the style and design of white, urban life in Canada in general and Vancouver in particular, they would find material aplenty in Karen Hofmann’s…
Read more 1181 Getting & spending in Lotusland