All That Was Left Unsaid by Danielle Dragona is a compelling, heart-rending, and deeply emotional portrayal of love, betrayal, family dynamics, and secrets left untold. Katrina Johnson, at seventy years old, is at a crossroads. Her beloved husband Sam has just died of cancer. She...

Some people hit rock bottom. In Alaskan Humble Pie by Natasha Von Imhof, rock star Ryder Hartley hits it on stage, in front of a crowd, blanking out on the words of his own lyrics. He flees the stage only to run straight into a...

Raymond Hackney’s A Plea for Freedom follows Daniel Asbury, a fifteen-year-old farm boy in Bedford County, Virginia, as the Revolution reaches his family in 1777. After Judge Charles Lynch punishes two captured Tories beneath the walnut tree in New London, Daniel’s desire for liberty becomes...

The plan was simple: six-year-old Patrice Johnson was supposed to meet an untimely end, and Crossing, an aptly named crossing guard, was the one selected to chaperone Patrice to the afterlife. Crossing gets his assignment mixed up, and things go awry. Since Crossing needs to...

In Robert Lovinger’s The Flickering of Souls, Tiago Madeira tends the bar at the Truro Café in Cape Cod while rebuilding his life after cocaine use cost him his marriage and landed him in jail in Boston. When he begins volunteering at Gardner Hospice in...

In Ken Breniman's a three body solution, during a period of political collapse, Tâm, Chip, and TaDoo become internationally famous after presenting their committed thruple as a public alternative to fear-driven leadership and social isolation. Their rise begins with the MMMurphyBed, a futuristic invention that...

Jeff Nesbit’s Autocrat is satirical, grotesque, and timely; it follows a narcissistic reality TV host named Rex Vanner who launches and wins the 2015 presidential campaign. But his leverage is a network contract, and what he succeeds in summoning is the darkest impulse in the...

“There’s no such thing as a whole, functional, fuck-up-free human. We all have our problems and things that prevent us from being perfect.” True, and that may include Nicholas Bruechle, author of the novel All Writers Are Liars. At the very least, his characters certainly...

The Chinese thinker Lao Tzu once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and that sentiment is echoed in Kaci Curtis's Along the Trail. Winnifred “Winnie” Hayes and her family take that first step as they leave their home and...

“Always have papers in your hand, walk fast, and look worried. Fewer people bother you.” Interestingly and funnily enough, I experienced this at a job I once had, though we used a clipboard, not papers. Even funnier is the whimsical nonsense in Average Civil Employee:...