[excerpt: novel]
“User: @JerBear83,” an excerpt from Super Castle Fun Park, by Daniel Zomparelli (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2026) $24.95 / 9781834050263
Tag: novel
A questionable miracle
Featuring writing like “lethal and blunt arrows,” a sophomore novel tells a tale of a complex mother-child relationship, a highly troubled real estate purchase, and a vulnerable protagonist who must “accept every jab and cut life’s sharpest knife has to offer.” —Sergio Espinosa reviews The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, by Kim Fu (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2026) $24.99 / 9781443465878
[ book excerpt: novel ]
“Spring 1911 Regina, Saskatchewan,” an excerpt from Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2026) $25.99 / 9781668060568
[ book excerpt: novel ]
An excerpt from Lindsay Wong’s Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2026) $27.95 / 9780735242418
Hidden places
Set on and near the Okanagan Indian Reserve during the summer of ’68, a graceful novel captures the wonders and joys as well as the pains and missteps of sixteen-year-old Lewis Toma. —Trish Bowering reviews Bones of a Giant, by Brian Thomas Isaac (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2025) $35.00 / 9781039011779
Friendships, romances, jobs
“Deep Cuts is a fantastic debut novel that aptly captures being in your twenties, loving music, and chaotic will-they-won’t-they romance. Winsome, full of heart, and with unusually excellent dialogue, Deep Cuts is destined to become a fondly dog-eared novel, meant to be reread and replayed.”—Jessica Poon reviews Deep Cuts, by Holly Brickley (Toronto: Doubleday, 2025) $26.99 / 9780385699907
Sam, Ilsa, and Rick in the Cold War
“If ever Moore decides to transform his novel into a screenplay for a Casablanca sequel, an intention suggested by naming his chapters as acts and scenes, I’d like to request a reserve seat. It promises to be a marvellous viewing treat.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Last Reel: A Sequel to “Casablanca,” by John Moore (Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2024) $25.95 / 9781771715140
Lovemaking, paratrooping
“Sprawling [and] ambitious” 1940s-set debut novel captures the death and male camaraderie of wartime Europe and the romantic challenges of a mixed-race couple in Vancouver. —Jessica Poon reviews The Riveter, by Jack Wang (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2025) $24.99 / 9781487007614
Romance tropes, refreshed
Aspiring ballerina meets NHL rookie. Eventually, romance blossoms. “Any reader remotely familiar with the trope of I’m Only Pretending to Like You will know where this story is going; however, it’s how Khabra delays the inevitable that I was most impressed by,” writes Jessica Poon in her review of Spiral, by Bal Khabra (Toronto: Berkley, 2025) $24.95 / 9780735250468
Hard times in ’41
Author draws on true-life experiences to portray hardship and perseverance in a wintry city during a horrific three-year campaign of attrition. —Heidi Greco reviews Winter of Siege, by Jan DeGrass (Garden Bay: MW Books, 2023) $20.00 / 9780995277830
Bloodlust and bayous
Debut novel immerses readers “in the infested Gothic stream of the American South” and portrays memorably obsessive characters “nurtured on beer and cigarettes.” —Michael Greenstein reviews After We Drowned, by Jill Yonit Goldberg (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2024) $22.00 / 9781772142273
A god at play
“Myth is the only truth, says Eros, echoing Jung, and perhaps we would be better served by a novel that focused more on myth and less on boring humans.” —Sheldon Goldfarb reviews A Bouquet of Darts: A European Travel Mystery, by Reed Stirling (Drayton Valley: BWL Publishing, 2024) $18.99 / 9780228631309
Reviewer picks 2024 (pt. 2)
BCR asked some of our regular contributors about books they read in the past year that really stuck with them. “Eclectic” is our word of the year.
Ms. Prynne, in a hall of mirrors
“Does the novel work? The implied audience is a small one, and even within it, some readers may find the novel more work than reward. But others will likely revel in the intricacy…” —Candace Fertile reviews Hester in Sunlight, by Hannah Calder (Vancouver: New Star, 2024) $22.00 / 9781554202102
Restaurant gods, clay feet
Ending of sophisticated restaurant-set novel, “in conversation with the ongoing cultural and legal reckoning happening with men who’ve abused their offices and privileges,” may disappoint some, enrage others. —Greg Brown reviews The Rise and Fall of Magic Wolf, by Timothy Taylor (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2024) $26.99 / 9781459753198
Quandaries amid crises
Nigeria-set sophomore novel “has enough tangly relationships for a soap opera, ample tension for a psychological thriller, and meaningful, if slightly under-explored sociopolitical commentary on race, religion, and gender.” —Jessica Poon reviews Every Drop of Blood Is Red, by Umar Turaki (New York: Little A (an Amazon Imprint), 2024) $24.99 / 781662508110
Memorializing ‘bums from the slums’
“As much as this is a document of a slice of the war, it is a novel about a distinctive character and personality.” —Theo Dombrowski reviews The Forgotten: A Novel of the Korean War, by Robert Mackay (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2024) $26.95 / 9781989689752
Tragedies and statistics
Debut novel, based on family memories, probes the “pitch-black reality of the Holodomor, the Soviet-engineered famine that is estimated to have killed up to five million Ukrainians in the early 1930s.” —Ryan Frawley reviews Black Sunflowers, by Cynthia LeBrun (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2024) $21.95 / 9781554556434
Homage to the Mac-Paps
“Remembering, as British writer George Orwell showed in his Homage to Catalonia, brings bloody thoughts to the surface and can unearth opposing memories. Spaner does not shy from including such moments and these add a tough realism to the novel.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Keefer Street, by David Spaner (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781553807209
Here be dragons
Featuring a tyrannical emperor, a kindhearted young hero, a daunting quest, and an “exceedingly chaste” romance, the novel succeeds on its own terms. —Jessica Poon reviews The Last Dragon of the East, by Katrina Kwan (Toronto: Saga Press, 2024) $24.99 / 9781668051238