Author Archives: Apollonia428

I liked this more than I thought I would— which, to be fair, was not at all (how much can an adult really like a schmoopy doomed teenage romance anyway?)— and the speed with which it can be read commends … Continue reading →

The first cycle of this incredibly powerful book of poetry is written from the perspective of the supposed black hijacker Susan Smith invented to cover up for her killing of her children, and while the conceit seems impossible to pull … Continue reading →

Aside from what is by now King’s obligatory awful sex scene, this was a fun, sweet, fast read.  Not much beyond surface, of course, but the surface is nice enough to while away the hour or two it will take … Continue reading →

I definitely checked this one out by mistake, thinking it was by the incredible Kate Atkinson (really, go read Life After Life right now, and then go read Behind the Scenes at the Museum right after) and was disappointed to find, … Continue reading →

How many books about an anachronistic killer of women who is guided by magical objects to his victims can a person reasonably read? One apparently, at least without having the second feel somewhat a slog.  I read NOS4A2 first and, … Continue reading →

This loosely animal themed sci-fi isn’t bad, exactly, just a little patchy.  The longest piece, “The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” dragged the collection down a lot, and like much contemporary sci-fi, the author isn’t quite sure of her metaphors.  … Continue reading →

Take Lolita, make Humbert Humbert a female middle-school teacher and Lolita her male student, and you have this book. No, wait. Take Lolita, make Humbert Humbert a female middle-school teacher and Lolita her male student, then strip it of all … Continue reading →

It’s impossible not to feel some sympathy with Lasdun’s plight, but I feel John Colapinto had it exactly right in the New Yorker when he wrote that Lasdun as “narrator is considerably limited when it comes to understanding his own … Continue reading →

I want to call this a droll, observant little book, but it isn’t little.  There’s just something about Lewis’s targets here— the tiny universe of Gopher Prairie and its chipper reformer, Carol Kennicott— that give the book a satisfying lightness, … Continue reading →