Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli (editors) Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022 $21.95 / 9781551529011 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * Everybody is afraid of something. David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli’s Queer Little Nightmares: An Antholgy of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry offers a chilling seasonal collection…
Read more 1601 Timely monstrosities
Don’t Call It A Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Viking), 2021 $24.95 / 9780735237896 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Be Afraid for Your Daughters: Parents lock the door, if you can, on predators bearing false promise of enlightenment What do…
Read more 1600 Parents, lock that door
Séjour Saint-Louis by Reed Stirling Airdrie, Alberta: BWL [Books We Love] Publishing, 2021 $22.00 / 9780228617488 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Cowichan Bay painter and writer Reed Stirling has published three works in as many years, following up a literary mystery and a “fictional memoir” with an atmospheric novel that is heavily and overtly influenced…
Read more 1599 Pilgrimage to the bust of Nelligan
Namwayut: We Are All One. A Pathway to Reconciliation by Chief Robert Joseph Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2022 $29.95 / 9781774580059 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * At last, the building, its outline terrorizing The Bay or Yalis, the community framed by open legs, both sides of the water which feeds the people, has come down….
Read more 1598 All together now
Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas by Harley Rustad Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Knopf Canada), 2022 $34.00 / 9780735279469 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop * For some readers, stories like this one are a tempting invitation to satire. There is, after all, much fodder for lampoonery…
Read more 1597 Get lost, young man
Two Pieces of Cloth: One Family’s Story of the Holocaust by Joe Gold Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2021 $21.95 / 9781989603826 Reviewed by Peter Hay * The vast literature of the Holocaust occupies various and distinct chambers in our latter-day imagination. First there are the historical documents which recorded or later reconstructed the names and…
Read more 1596 A many-coloured coat
The Darkness in the Light by Daniel Kalla Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2022 $24.99 / 9781982191399 Reviewed by Valerie Green * If you enjoy gripping, psychological thrillers, Daniel Kalla’s book The Darkness in The Light will hold your attention to the very end. The story takes place in Anchorage, Alaska, and in the remote…
Read more 1595 Beware of Ketopram
Art, Research, Play: The Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Project by Donald Lawrence, Josephine Mills, and Emily Dundas Oke (editors), foreword by W.F. (Will) Garrett-Petts Lethbridge: University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2021 $39.95 / 9781927770115 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * “This is a book that arrests attention but won’t stand still.” Thanks to W.F. Garrett-Petts for this assertion…
Read more 1594 The celebrated camera obscura
Subject to Change: Writings and Interviews by Liz Magor, with an introduction by Phillip Monk Montreal: Concordia University Press, 2022 $59.95 / 9781988111339 Reviewed by Michael Turner * As a writer of art criticism I have come to appreciate the writings of visual artists. Not just those who use text in their work, but who…
Read more 1593 Practice makes pretext
The Scent of Light by Kristjana Gunnars Toronto: Coach House Books, 2022 $25.95 / 9781552454381 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * In his introduction to The Scent of Light, Kazim Ali describes the five novellas that make up Kristjana Gunnars’ s collection as “transgeneric books comprised of a dynamic blend of fiction, autobiography, literary theory and…
Read more 1592 Five novellas
Small Talk by Christopher Levenson New Westminster: Silver Bow Publishing, 2022 $23.95 / 9781774032152 Reviewed by Al Rempel * Christopher Levenson’s latest book, Small Talk, is a collection of short poems that is poignant, insightful, or humorous, and filled with observations that resonate with lived experience. Levenson has decided to showcase his small poems —…
Read more 1591 Short poems, deep pauses
Hesitating Once to Feel Glory by Maleea Acker Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2022 $19.95 / 9780889714144 Reviewed by Theresa Kishkan * This is how the title poem in Maleea Acker’s new poetry collection, Hesitating Once To Feel Glory, begins: Sometimes I think we can see the world before it began, and that’s what makes us so…
Read more 1590 The art of looking
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $22.00 / 9780771096488 Reviewed by Michelle Ha * “How do you grieve, if your family doesn’t talk about feelings?” This is a question that I feel like many children of immigrants can relate to, and most may have asked themselves as…
Read more 1589 The empty spaces of love
Dearly by Margaret Atwood Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2020 $24.00 / 9780771000799 Reviewed by gillian harding-russell * In Dearly, Margaret Atwood returns with a poetry collection after nearly two decades since Morning in the Burned House (1995). The poems do not disappoint. Here the unexpected angles of perception with their edge…
Read more 1588 Wit, irony, and blackberries
Johnny of Maillardville by Marie-Laure Chevrier with illustrations by Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2021 $15.95/ 9781988242422 * Monsieur Maillardville: Un Pionnier Visionnaire par Marie-Laure Chevrier avec illustrations par Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Éditions du Pacifique Nord-Ouest, 2021 $15.95 / 9782925064121 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * …
Read more 1587 Monsieur Maillardville
305 Lost Buildings of Canada by Raymond Biesinger & Alex Bozikovic Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2022 $22.95 / 9781773102368 Reviewed by Martin Segger * What do we do about dead buildings? In our own time do they just sort of fade in community memory, like the guy in the office several cubicles down the hall…
Read more 1586 Touching down in the past
Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories by Caroline Adderson Toronto: House of Anansi (Groundwood) 2021 $16.99 / 9781773065724 Reviewed by Alison Acheson * Caroline Adderson’s work, whether for adults or children, crackles with vibrancy of language, and colour-filled image and tone. Always. Her recent and covid-inspired collection of connected short fiction for middle-grade readers —…
Read more 1585 Truisms of the quarantine
Damages: Selected Stories 1982-2012 by Keath Fraser, with an introduction by John Metcalf Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2021 $22.99 / 9781771962933 Reviewed by Bill Paul * Last year marked the publication of Keath Fraser’s highly anticipated collection of short stories, Damages: Selected Stories, 1982-2012, with an introduction by John Metcalf. The fiction collected in this volume…
Read more 1584 The mighty Fraser
Beneath the Coal Dust: Historical Journeys Through the Elk Valley and Crowsnest Pass by Wayne Norton Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860923 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Blowing the Dust Away: A historian digs out unique local stories that shed light on our national history Wayne Norton is a master of footnote history….
Read more 1583 Blowing the dust away
Fire on Headless Mountain by Iain Lawrence Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Margaret Ferguson Books), 2022 $23.99 / 978082344654 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Iain Lawrence’s novels for young readers fit into two sub-genres. In last year’s Deadman’s Castle — winner of the 2022 Silver Birch Fiction Award — as in his earlier swashbuckling trilogies The…
Read more 1582 The art of the possible