Review — Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers

The front cover of the book Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers, featuring the image of a dog Lacuna
By: Fiona Snyckers
Release Date: January 11, 2022
Publisher: Europa Editions
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


If author J.M. Coetzee’s award-winning novel Disgrace is mentioned in a room full of people, it will certainly become the topic of hot debate, despite it being released several decades ago. Literary responses to this work aren’t short in number, but standing out among them is Fiona Snyckers’s novel Lacuna.

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawabura

Man and a cat sitting on a bench with their backs turned to the viewer. If Cats Disappeared from the World
By: Genki Kawamura
Illustrator: Leeann Falciani (Jacket Design); Henry Sene Yee (Jacket Illustration)
Translator: Eric Selland
Release Date: March 12, 2019
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating:


Genki Kawamura’s first novel, If Cats Disappeared from the World, has sold over two million copies worldwide, and it isn’t difficult to see why. A storyteller in all forms, Kawamura isn’t simply a novelist. He has also produced movies such as the famed Your Name as well as done work as a screenwriter and showrunner. All of these myriad of storytelling techniques leak into the novel, if not in method it was crafted, then in our nameless main character, his hobbies, and his loves.

Review – The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Lawrence Powell

The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming
By: James Lawrence Powell
Release Date: September 2020
Publisher: Atria Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


James Lawrence Powell is no stranger to penning books, but The 2084 Report: An Oral History of The Great Warming is his foray into fiction. The majority of his books are nonfiction titles touching on the subjects he’s spent his life teaching and researching at various universities around the country—namely geology and climate science.

Review – The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura

Woman's face wearing a pink hat with the title The Woman in the Purple Skirt beneath it. The Woman in the Purple Skirt
By: Natsuko Imamura
Translator: Lucy North
Release Date: June 8, 2021
Publisher: Penguin Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Natsuko Imamura’s debut English novel is a story that is at once a slow-burning character study and a tale of obsession and psychological intrigue. The Woman in the Purple Skirt has already won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in Japan, which Imamura was previously nominated for twice before.

#MangaMonday Review – Downfall by Inio Asano

Downfall Inio Asano Downfall
By: Inio Asano
Illustrator: Inio Asano
Translator: Jocelyn Allen
Release Date: February 18, 2020`
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Where do you go after you finish the greatest work of your life? What lies past the completion of your life’s work? How do you find it? How do you live up to the world’s expectations, let alone your own? These are the questions poised within Downfall by Inio Asano, the Eisner nominated author of the series Solanin and Goodnight Punpun. This is a single-volume manga as opposed to the much more common series length manga works.

#BookTour – Eden by Tim Lebbon

Eden Eden
By: Tim Lebbon
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Publisher: Titan Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


A brand new eco-thriller hit shelves earlier this month. Eden is the latest novel by Tim Lebbon, winner of three British Fantasy Awards, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shocker, and a finalist for both the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Award. His latest novel combines horror, near future sci-fi, and ecological thriller genres into one unforgettable story.

Review – Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff Last Ones Left Alive
By: Sarah Davis-Goff
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Debut author Sarah Davis-Goff brings us a standalone novel titled Last Ones Left Alive, a unique take on what happens when a sheltered young woman has to suddenly face the post-apocalypse alone. This novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, a place filled with zombie-like creatures called skrake. Orpen’s early life was sheltered, having been raised by her mother and Maeve on an uninfested island off the Irish coast. But now her mother’s gone, and Maeve is gravely ill. Determined, angry, and searching for her identity in the remnants of the world, Orpen takes Maeve to Ireland on a journey to find a rumored city and the banshees—the all-women fighting force that’s fought the skrake for generations.

Review – The Missing Season by Gillian French

The Missing Season by Gillian French The Missing Season
By: Gillian French
Release Date: May 21, 2019
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating:


Gillian French’s newest novel, The Missing Season, is a novel that straddles several genres—mystery, horror, and thriller. The author is no stranger to the genre, her novel Grit being nominated for an Edgar Award. This novel, too, is a great example of a young adult book that falls within that liminal space between thriller and horror.

#MangaMonday – The Wize Wize Beasts of Wizardly Wizdoms by Nagabe

The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabe The Wize Wize Beasts of Wizardly Wizdoms
By: Nagabe
Illustrator: Nagabe; Karis Page (Lettering and Layout)
Translator: Adrienne Beck
Release Date: October 1, 2019
Publisher: Seven Seas
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Several chapter-long stories set in a wizarding school make up the new single volume manga The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabe, mangaka of the series The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, A Run.