“Somewhere between the ages of twelve and twenty-one, he lost the superpower to make mundane things magical,” writes Garrett Curbow about protagonist James Finch, in Curbow’s debut novel Whispers of Ink and Starlight (Lake Union 2026) . This fantastical book aims at re-enlivening that magical capacity—for James, and for the reader. James is a student […]
Read of the Month: “The Walls Are Closing In On Us” by Joshua Trent Brown
June 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment
What would your life look like if it were played back for you in your final moments, watched from a lofty vantage like heaven, or the more oblique angle of purgatory? Would you see yourself being carried along, pinged from vertex to vertex as the polygon of your life develops? Could you name the forces […]
“Charlie-Man” by Thomas Cullen
May 4, 2026 by 2 Comments
Thomas Cullen’s debut novel Charlie-Man (Brandylane 2025) is a slow-burn of a coming-of-age story—a paced, environmental read that takes us into the world of an elite preparatory boys’ school in Richmond, Virginia, in the mid-1990s. We meet protagonist Charlie Stewart, a rising high school senior, as he is about to jump off a dam into […]