Tag: poetry

— Adult, ARC review, book review —

The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel (ARC Review)

March 22, 2024

The follow-up to Guriel’s NYT New & Noteworthy Forgotten Work is a mashup of Moby-Dick , The Lord of the Rings , Byron, cyberpunk, Swamp Thing , Teen Wolf … and more.

It’s 2070. Newfoundland has vanished, Tokyo is a new Venice, and many people have retreated to “bonsai housing”: hives that compress matter in a world that’s losing ground to rising tides. Enter Kaye, an English literature student searching for the reclusive author of a YA classic—a beloved novel about teenage werewolves sailing to a fabled sea monster’s nest. Kaye’s quest will intersect with obsessive fan subcultures, corporate conspiracies, flying gondolas, an anthropomorphic stove, and the molecular limits of reality itself. Set in the same world as Guriel’s acclaimed Forgotten Work , which the New York Times called “unlikely, audacious, and ingenious,” and written in rhyming couplets, The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles cuts between Kaye’s quest, chapters from the YA novel, and guerilla works of fanfic in a visionary verse novel destined to draw its own cult following… Read More The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel (ARC Review)

— ARC review, book review, young adult —

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride (ARC Review)

January 5, 2022
Blog post header for Flavia the Bibliophile's review of Me (Moth) by Amber McBride.

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted. Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones. Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable. Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe… Read More Me (Moth) by Amber McBride (ARC Review)

— Adult, ARC review, book review, Poetry —

Is This Scary?: Poems by Jacob Scheier (ARC Review)

June 14, 2021
The blog header for Flavia the Bibliophile's review for Is This Scary? by Jacob Scheier

Is This Scary? digs deep into internal landscapes of suffering, including depression and anxiety, chronic physical ailment, and rare neurological malady. With its many eccentric songs and odes to medications and medical procedures, this book is full of both levity and unapologetic lament. Pushing back against societal stigma, Is This Scary? unflinchingly addresses experiences of psychiatric institutionalization and suicidality, without either romanticizing or pathologizing them. Scheier rejects much of the mainstream cultural views of mental illness, subverting the biochemical model by emphasizing the radical subjectivity of mental suffering. While the poems render the difficulty of communicating pain to others, they defiantly celebrate its expression and evocation through visceral lyricism… Read More Is This Scary?: Poems by Jacob Scheier (ARC Review)

— book review, multiple reviews, nonfiction —

Pocket Change Collective, Books 1-6 (Multi-Book Review)

April 3, 2021

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me complimentary physical copies of the first Pocket Change Collective books to read and review! I am very conscious and interested in ways that we can make the world and society better, I also work for a social enterprise, so the Pocket Change Collective… Read More Pocket Change Collective, Books 1-6 (Multi-Book Review)

— book review, children's, nonfiction —

The Maine Coon’s Haiku by Michael J. Rosen & Lee Anthony White (Review)

January 1, 2020

Some cats have names that suggest far-off lands, like the Turkish Angora and the Norwegian forest cat. Others allude to places closer to home, such as California’s ragdoll and the Maine coon. Set against Lee White’s graceful illustrations, with intriguing facts about each of twenty breeds at the end, this charming haiku collection for lovers of America’s most popular house pet provides the purr-fect book to curl up with… Read More The Maine Coon’s Haiku by Michael J. Rosen & Lee Anthony White (Review)