Alana M. Kelley – Maudlin House

The Weight of the World: A Review of Nicholas Keating Casbarro’s Vitalerium: Descent into the Void

Alana M. KelleyNovember 30, 2025

Nicholas Keating Casbarro’s Vitalerium: Descent into the Void is a vividly executed work of science fiction. A blend of space opera, political thriller, and phi...

Reviews0 Comments

These Efforts are Only Temporary: A Review of James R. Gapinski’s The Museum of Future Mistakes

Alana M. KelleyNovember 23, 2025

James R. Gapinski’s upcoming collection The Museum of Future Mistakes is a brilliant descent into fabulist short fiction, interweaving lyricism, whimsy, the gro...

Reviews1 Comment

A Nightmare Grips My Ankle: A Review of Ken Anderson’s The Ward at Twilight

Alana M. KelleyOctober 30, 2024

Ken Anderson’s The Ward at Twilight presents a heartrending exploration of vulnerability, memory, and the passage of time. Anderson’s language is both lyrical a...

Reviews0 Comments

The Unseen Mess: A Review of Brian Alan Ellis’ Hobbies You Enjoy

Alana M. KelleyOctober 18, 2024

Brian Alan Ellis' Hobbies You Enjoy is a darkly humorous exploration of modern ennui, capturing the absurdities of life with a raw, biting edge. As with much of...

Reviews0 Comments

If There Were a Sympathy in Choice: A Review of C.J. Spataro’s More Strange Than True

Alana M. KelleySeptember 18, 2024

C.J. Spataro’s More Strange Than True is a witty and inventive novel that offers a modern twist on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. Set in contemporary ...

Reviews0 Comments

Places We Think Are Haunted; A Review of D.T. Robbins’ Leasing

Alana M. KelleyAugust 26, 2024

D.T. Robbins' Leasing is a striking foray into the complexities of modern existence, capturing the subtleties of human relationships, identity, and the somewhat...

Reviews0 Comments

A Review of The Distortions by Christopher Linforth

Alana M. KelleyJune 9, 2022

In The Distortions, Christopher Linforth explores the mundanities of life that continue to exist after war, where generational grief continues to linger. In the...

Reviews0 Comments

Not Tonight: A Review of Kelly McClure’s Something Is Always Happening Somewhere

Alana M. KelleyMarch 12, 2022

Kelly McClure doesn’t do subtle very well and with her newest novel, Something Is Always Happening Somewhere, she has no intention to. The blows throughout this...

Reviews0 Comments

There’s Something Beautiful Here: A Review of C.E. Hoffman’s Sluts and Whores

Alana M. KelleyMarch 4, 2022

As Sex and the City meets an episode of Black Mirror, we follow a myriad of eerie narratives throughout C.E. Hoffman’s text Sluts and Whores. Though seemingly o...

Reviews1 Comment

A Review of Trish McDonald’s Paper Bags by Alana M. Kelley

Alana M. KelleyFebruary 22, 2022

Trish McDonald’s Paper Bags is aptly titled. The text gradually unpacks the effects of deep-rooted wounds, measured suffering collected through complacency and ...

Reviews0 Comments

A Review of The Persistence of Instability by Patrick Trotti

Alana M. KelleyNovember 30, 2021

Patrick Trotti’s The Persistence of Instability addresses addiction in all manifestations. Both substance abuse and abuse of the self are consistently present t...

Reviews0 Comments

A Review of Grace Agnew’s Sanctuary

Alana M. KelleyOctober 22, 2021

Grace Agnew’s debut dystopian novel analyzes a concept at the very core of modern life, highlighting the results of a neglected climate crisis. In the post-Anth...

Reviews1 Comment

To Remove Devastation From Our Minds: A Review of Emory Easton’s Mother Can You Hear Me Now?

Alana M. KelleyAugust 28, 2021

Emory Easton’s Mother Can You Hear Me Now? is a chronological celebration of life. Bittersweet and tender moments, unfathomable love, and traumatic loss; Easton...

Reviews0 Comments

Real and Raw and Mutual: A Review of Emilly Prado’s Funeral for Flaca

Alana M. KelleyJuly 31, 2021

Bittersweet and erupting, Funeral for Flaca is a nostalgic memoir must-read for the aging millennial; A nodding anthem for everyone who grew up in the early 200...

Reviews0 Comments

Odd and Lonesome and Fascinating: A Review of Hosho McCreesh’s Chinese Gucci

Alana M. KelleyDecember 15, 2020

FOMO, lost-love, and the desire to be both liked and not give a fuck what anyone thinks about you are just some of the themes within McCreesh’s debut novel, Chi...

Reviews0 Comments

“A “Collected Works” Comprised of All the Times Your Life Fell Apart” / A Review of Brian Alan Ellis’ Sad Laughter

Alana M. KelleyNovember 30, 2020

I’ve never wanted to both go to waffle house more often and never go to waffle house ever again. Brian Alan Ellis asks us “...isn’t this a fucking ...

Reviews0 Comments

Grief; Love; Nostalgia: A Review of Rachelle Toarmino’s ‘That Ex’

Alana M. KelleyNovember 2, 2020

If opening with an epigraph from Carmela Soprano doesn’t perfectly envelop the mood of this book of poetry, then nothing ever will. It’s hard to not want to quo...

Reviews0 Comments

A Love Unendingly Deep: A Review of Tanya Holtland’s Requisite

Alana M. KelleyOctober 28, 2020

Tanya Holtland’s debut book Requisite, meaning a thing that is necessary, is exactly that. Its message is blunt but delivered softly. Requisite reads as a cerem...

Reviews0 Comments