Riveting. Character-driven. A literary thriller you will want to devour in one sitting. Not What She Seems (Thomas & Mercer 2024) is all this and more. None of the many-layered characters are what they seem at first glance. Yasmin Angoe’s latest novel is a worthy successor to her series featuring Nena Knight, which SLR reviewed […]
“The King Street Affair” by Jon Sealy
August 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Full of intrigue and plot twists, Jon Sealy’s The King Street Affair grabs you in the first chapter and doesn’t let go. The mystery/spy novel develops an increasingly eerie atmosphere as Charleston, South Carolina, newspaper reporter Wyatt Brewer stumbles through a web of lies, secrets, and betrayals into a surreal world where nothing is as […]
John Wall Barger interviews Shannon Robinson, author of “The Ill-Fitting Skin”
August 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Introduction: Raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Shannon Robinson holds an MFA in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis. Robinson received Nimrod’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts, a Hedgebrook Fellowship, a Sewanee Scholarship, and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland Arts […]
“All We Have Loved” by Julia Nunnally Duncan
August 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Julia Nunnally Duncan’s latest collection of essays, All We Have Loved (Finishing Line Press 2023) tells stories of her childhood, growing up the daughter of textile workers in the mountains of western North Carolina, as well as the childhoods of her loved ones. In these short vignettes, Duncan describes holidays in her rural neighborhood in […]
“The Saddest Girl on the Beach” by Heather Frese
August 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
The Saddest Girl on the Beach (Blair 2024) begins on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a “dimly bruised January day.” What a perfect description for a wintery day near the beach; you can just imagine the gray-green water, swirling gray clouds with the sun trying to peek through, the chilling damp. Grab your […]
Read of the Month: “Lunchladies Bought My Prom Dress” by Heather Ream
July 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Heather Ream’s debut publication, Lunchladies Bought My Prom Dress, is an unflinching account of her childhood and teenage years in Knoxville, TN. She manages to take some of her often tragic circumstances about growing up in poverty and make them flat out hilarious. Photographs, interspersed throughout the memoir, give the reader a clear visual insight […]