Reviews

Binary Star – Sarah Gerard

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Gerard’s prose is too beautiful, too aware of the potential of poetic pacing, for wallowing.

Oh, Salaam! – Najwa Barakat

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The rat is the most destructive, the most gluttonous, and the most reproductive animal. It doesn’t kill just when it is hungry, but also, and especially, because it enjoys destruction.

The Physics of Sorrow – Georgi Gospodinov

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It is a sincere vision, a sincere request for forgiveness, and yet still something laughable. He means to honor the shit, not demean the religions.

Viper Wine – Hermione Eyre

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Viper Wine whispers beyond its pages, reappearing in glossy advertisements of Elle and in strange-tasting rouged lips.

Octavia’s Brood – Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown

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What if what we’ve been conditioned to see as our weaknesses were in fact our greatest strengths? How do we deal effectively with conflict without contributing to an ongoing cycle of violence?

Disgruntled – Asali Solomon

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Solomon’s protagonist does a good job of insulating herself from the outside world. This ensures that not much happens.

Dear Thief – Samantha Harvey

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Letters offer both an emotional intimacy and an intellectual challenge that can be hard to resist.

Apocalypse Baby – Virginie Despentes

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Solving a missing person case is more a matter of waiting for that person to connect back to the grid, even for just a moment.

Fifteen Dogs – André Alexis

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Alexis takes up notions of language and consciousness on a fundamental level, and what it means to have both or one without the other.

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary – Sarah Manguso

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Reading this essay gives me hope that I will outgrow my fear of death.