I’ve read mixed reviews of Christine Pride and Jo Piazza’s joint novel We Are Not Like Them (Atria Books, 2021), but this was to be expected with such a heavy topic. Some of the criticism was very fair, but much of it revolved around unrealistic expectations and a failure to recognize the delicate balance PrideContinue reading “WE ARE NOT LIKE THEM – Christine Pride & Jo Piazza”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
SANKOFA – Chibundu Onuzo
Chibundu Onuzo’s Sankofa (Catapult, 2021) is one of the best books I’ve read in 2021. It would have been in my top three but for the last quarter of the novel, which I don’t think carries the same power and charm as the rest of the work. Regardless, it’s a fantastic read about family, belonging,Continue reading “SANKOFA – Chibundu Onuzo”
VELVET WAS THE NIGHT – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Last year’s Mexican Gothic was my introduction to Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and while her 2021 release wasn’t a horror, I was equally drawn to the plot and, truth be told, the cover; it’s not as stunning as the cover of Mexican Gothic, but just like that cover made clear the novel was a gothic, Velvet wasContinue reading “VELVET WAS THE NIGHT – Silvia Moreno-Garcia”
CAZADORA – Romina Garber
A few months ago, I reviewed Romina Garber’s Lobizona, and I stated that “there’s a comforting familiarity” to the story. The follow-up, Cazadora: Wolves of No World #2(Wednesday Books, 2021), continues in that familiar pattern but maintains the very unique feel that set Garber’s worldbuilding apart in Lobizona; Garber’s story relies heavily on Argentinian folkloreContinue reading “CAZADORA – Romina Garber”
BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED – Jayne Allen
Jayne Allen’s Black Girls Must Die Exhausted (Harper, 2021 – first published in 2018) is unapologetically “black,” but it didn’t choose to be so – it just is, and it’s taken far too long for a book like this just to exist on the same shelves as books by white authors about white women withContinue reading “BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED – Jayne Allen”
CHINA ROOM – Sunjeev Sahota
Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room (Viking, 2021) was another slim selection from the Booker 2021 longlist, but unlike A Passage North, which is a little bit longer, I gobbled it up in one sitting; it’s the kind of storytelling I prefer, and Sahota weaves an intimate and heartbreaking tale of love, independence, hate, and the chainsContinue reading “CHINA ROOM – Sunjeev Sahota”
A PASSAGE NORTH – Anuk Arudpragasam
In continuing with my attempt to read the Booker Prize 2021 longlist, I finally finished Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North (Random House, 2021). While I didn’t hate it, it is certainly at the bottom of my rankings. (It still comes in head and shoulders ahead of Second Place, though.) My issue with the novel isContinue reading “A PASSAGE NORTH – Anuk Arudpragasam”
BEWILDERMENT – Richard Powers
Even though the 2021 Booker Prize has already been announced (Congrats to Damon Galgut!), I’m still making my way through the longlist. Richard Powers’s Bewilderment (W. W. Norton & Co., 2021) received a lot of attention, and I’m not surprised it was shortlisted for the prestigious award. The slim novel of grief and nature madeContinue reading “BEWILDERMENT – Richard Powers”
HARLEM SHUFFLE – Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead is an author I’ve been meaning to read for ages. He’s won the Pulitzer Prize twice; for The Underground Railroad in 2017 and for The Nickel Boys in 2020. I picked up his 2021 release, Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday) as my introduction to Whitehead, and what a sharp, sly read it is. “Carney wasContinue reading “HARLEM SHUFFLE – Colson Whitehead”
RADIANT FUGITIVES – Nawaaz Ahmed
“My mother’s name is Seema. Which means face, something of her I will never see, or frontier, something I must leave behind.” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel Radiant Fugitives (Counterpoint Press, 2021). I’d read a blurb months before publication in a failed attempt to get an advanced copy,Continue reading “RADIANT FUGITIVES – Nawaaz Ahmed”
A Girl Named Tommi 