Life at the Precipice by R.F. Vincent Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023 $20.99 / 9781039171497 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * There’s a long tradition of novels masquerading as true stories. Think of Robinson Crusoe. Or Lemuel Gulliver. Readers in 1726 were treated to the appearance of a book of travels by Captain Gulliver, who told of Lilliputians…
Read more Cpt. Sivart’s adventures in wonderland
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng New York: MacMillan/Roaring Brook Press, 2023 $26.99 / 9781250864994 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * All that glitters is likelier ghoul than gold in Linda Cheng’s K-pop-inspired debut novel, Gorgeous Gruesome Faces. Cheng was born in Taiwan, though much of her adolescence was spent moving between different cultures and continents….
Read more 1975 Ghoulish K-pop teen horror!!
Attention students in Graduate Liberal Studies at Simon Fraser University! * Since 2018, students in the Graduate Liberal Studies programme at Simon Fraser University have contributed numerous essays, memoirs, poems, and book reviews to The British Columbia Review. We at the BC Review are delighted to maintain a productive collaboration with the GLS community, as…
Read more 1970 Calling Graduate Liberal Studies
Echo Lane by Sandra Kelly Edmonton: Stonehouse Publishing, 2023 $22.00 / 1988754453 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Echo Lane by Invermere’s Sandra Kelly is an emotionally tense and compelling novel. The protagonist, Patsy, has lived an undeniably difficult life. Though she lives in Calgary, much of the present is occupied by thoughts of her past…
Read more 1968 Genius brother, dead sister, MacGuffin, oh my!
Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2023 $25.95 / 9781774390757 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * Frances Peck has once again written a story that will grip British Columbian’s fears and hearts. Her debut novel, The Broken Places, envisioned fall-out from the big earthquake predicted to hit the Vancouver area. Uncontrolled Flight’s catalyst is…
Read more 1964 Literary thriller, ‘by all accounts … thrilling’
The Palimpsest Murders–A European Travel Mystery by Reed Stirling Airdrie: BWL Publishing, 2023 $18.99 / 9780228626268 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Reed Stirling (Shades of Persephone) begins his book by giving readers the meaning of the word “palimpsest,” which features in his title. He explains: “Palimpsest—A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later…
Read more 1962 Murder mystery marred by typographic errors
In Search of April Raintree (Fortieth Anniversary Edition) by Beatrice Mosionier Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781774920916 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * To familiarize myself with In Search of April Raintree, a book a publicist had kindly sent to me that also revealed a surprise gap in my reading history, I first read…
Read more 1960 ‘[T]ender and brutal … heartbreaking and hopeful’
Away From the Dead by David Bergen Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2023 $24.95 / 9781773103105 Reviewed by Trish Bowering * “She asked him to read to her. And so he did. And every evening after that, he picked up his book and read… The story was both simple and difficult. She said that normally people…
Read more 1957 Hardship and a sense of hope
The World is But a Broken Heart by Michael Maitland Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2023 $19.95 / 9781773241296 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * As the title suggests, The World is But a Broken Heart is not a cheery book. In fact, the linked stories in this debut collection reveal a family for whom just…
Read more 1952 Heartbreak and ‘passages of such beauty’
In the Belly of the Sphinx by Grant Buday Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023 $25.00 / 9781990071157 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * In the epigraph to his latest novel, Mayne Island’s Grant Buday reprints this question by Celine: “And where, I ask you, can a man escape to when he hasn’t enough madness inside him?” Celine,…
Read more 1951 Victorian history as a ‘ludicrous romp’
Rains, At Times Heavy by Debi Goodwin Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2023 $25.00 / 9781773861227 Reviewed by Trish Bowering * These days, it’s near impossible to escape the news of extreme weather. In Death Valley, the temperatures recently topped 50 degrees Celsius. In our forests, fire has transformed so much of the landscape, smoke obscuring…
Read more 1949 A personal quest amid weather extremes
The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted by Jennifer Manuel Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $24.95 / 9781771623193 Reviewed by Valerie Green * In The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted, southern Vancouver Island author Jennifer Manuel has written an outstanding book full of compassion and hope. The former college, elementary, and high school…
Read more 1944 Determination and hope
How to Be Found by Emily Pohl-Weary Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $19.95 / 9781551529356 Reviewed by Rhea Tregebov * Emily Pohl-Weary’s YA novel, How to be Found, makes for propulsive, compelling reading. Sixteen-year-old best friends Michie and Trissa consider themselves sisters and offer each other both standard sisterly grief and fierce sisterly loyalty. Only-children…
Read more 1942 Teenage girls, ‘unredacted’
Out of the Dark by Julie Lawson Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2023 $14.95 / 9781774712344 Reviewed by Alison Acheson * “… just don’t get anything fancy. We are who we are”: words spoken by the main character’s mother in Julie Lawson’s middle grade/young adult novel Out of the Dark. The words reflect a theme to the…
Read more 1940 For YA readers: Halifax in WWI
The Watchers’ Club: A Novel of Innocence and Guilt by G. Kim Blank Sante Fe: Sunstone Press, 2023 $36.00 / 9781632935304 Reviewed by Bill Engleson * Overture— My opportunity to review G. Kim Blank’s first novel, The Watchers’ Club, came about rather serendipitously. A mutual friend sent me a link to a recent Victoria…
Read more 1938 Boys coming of age (in a compact murder mystery)
This Is How You Start to Disappear by Astrid Blodgett Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2023 $24.99 / 9781772127133 Reviewed by W.H. New * The twelve stories that comprise This Is How You Start to Disappear are emotionally connected with each other. They don’t feature the same characters; they don’t ever quite resolve the…
Read more 1937 Against invisibility
The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding Toronto: Grand Central Publishing, 2023 $28.00 / 9781538726761 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding is disturbing, juicy, riveting, and true to Harding’s previous work—the perfect nocturnal accompaniment to guarantee sleeplessness, but the fun kind. In terms of scandalizing secrets, think Big Little Lies, only…
Read more 1936 Thriller with monstrous, ‘unequivocally irredeemable’ men
Wrack Line by M.W. Jaeggle Regina: University of Regina Press, 2023 $19.95 /9780889779532 Reviewed by Joe Enns * Wrack Line, M.W. Jaeggle’s debut book of poetry, examines life in consideration of transitions and liminal distances “as crucial as the space / between prayer beads.” Jaeggle uses the wrack line—the area of seashore where organic material and…
Read more 1934 Isolation, grief, poetics, birdsong
Once Upon an Effing Time by Buffy Cram Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $24.95 / 9781771623605 Reviewed by Carellin Brooks * The title of Buffy Cram’s Once Upon an Effing Time hints at its contents: a child’s fairy tale, if not exactly by the book. This version is closer to the classical Brothers Grimm…
Read more 1932 A ‘rollicking, heart-stopping, fraught, and hopeful’ debut
Stillwater by Darcy Friesen Hossack New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781990160202 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Darcy Friesen Hossack’s debut novel, Stillwater, plays on her own Mennonite and Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) background. The main character, Lizzy, a teenage girl with aspirations of a medical career, is forced to move with her family to…
Read more 1929 Perseverance in a closed community