Writing Before the Silence Catches Up: A Review of David LeBrun’s Delirium Vitae

Mallory SmartAugust 4, 2025

There’s a specific kind of silence that follows a person when they decide not to go home. Not grief. Just the quiet of knowing nobody’s waiting. A stillness tha...

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The Version of Me I Didn’t Choose: a review of Jackie Thomas-Kennedy’s The Other Wife

Mallory SmartJuly 28, 2025

There are days where I can’t tell if I’m bored or exhausted or just rewatching the same thought over and over. That’s exactly where Zuzu lives in The Other Wife...

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You Don’t Need a Monster When You Have a Neighbor: A Review of Amie Souza Reilly’s Human/Animal (A Bestiary in Essays)

Mallory SmartMay 18, 2025

Some books start loud. This one doesn’t. It lingers. It stares. It waits for you to notice it hasn’t left the room. Human/Animal by Amie Souza Reilly is shap...

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Sixteen Ways to Misbehave: A Review of Be Gay, Do Crime

Mallory SmartApril 29, 2025

Reading Be Gay, Do Crime feels like being handed a stolen car key, a lukewarm cocktail, and a list of exes you promised never to text again. It dares you to mak...

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My Dream Has Come: a review of And One Day We Will Die

Mallory SmartDecember 2, 2024

Almost exactly a year ago, I found myself in the perfect chaos of a conversation with Patrick Barb on my podcast, Textual Healing. The topic? I can't remember. ...

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Twisted Nostalgia: Patrick Barb’s Masterpiece of Dark Absurdity

Mallory SmartOctober 22, 2024

A Review of The Children’s Horror: Cursed Episodes for Doomed Adults by Patrick Barb FOREWARNING: The following review is not created for or targeted for adult...

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Failure

Mallory SmartSeptember 11, 2024

It was once the tallest building in Chicago—part of a pair. 601 feet tall and someone is falling from the top of it. You think you know her. You recognize her. ...

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Beyond the Headlines: A Review Of Sarah Gerard’s Carrie Carolyn Coco

Mallory SmartSeptember 1, 2024

I’ve lost more nights than I’d like to admit on Netflix, binging on Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy documentaries, and my bookshelf is a graveyard of true crime ti...

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Adventures In Moontown: A Review of Rick Claypool’s “Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War”

Mallory SmartAugust 18, 2024

Rick Claypool’s latest offering, “Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War,” thrusts readers into the twisted lunar wasteland of Moontown—a place where mutants with bodie...

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Like Sipping on Serenity: A Journey Through Poetry and Tibetan Tea in Anna Waldman’s ‘Tendrel: A Meeting of Minds’

Mallory SmartJuly 29, 2024

Anne Waldman’s Tendrel: A Meeting of Minds is like hopping into a time machine and landing smack in the middle of a Beat Generation poetry slam, with a Tibetan ...

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The Whimsy of Woe: a review of Luke Healy’s “Self-Esteem and the End of the World”

Mallory SmartMay 8, 2024

In a world on the verge of ecological collapse, Luke Healy’s latest graphic novel, “Self-Esteem and the End of the World,” offers a poignant and introspective l...

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Hanging in an Alien Sky: a review of “Death Egg” by Nathaniel Duggan

Mallory SmartFebruary 14, 2024

September 22nd, 2023: I take a copy of Death Egg to a cabin in Wisconsin. Unable to read. A goat that has found its way onto the porch keeps trying to eat it. ...

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Time Presents Itself: A Review of Bennett Sims’ Other Minds and Other Stories

Mallory SmartNovember 2, 2023

Bennett Sims, celebrated for his acclaimed works like "White Dialogues," skillfully crafts a captivating tapestry of surreal and absurdist narratives that will ...

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Unveiling the Supernatural: Nora Fussner’s ‘The Invisible World’ Conjures Eerie Excellence

Mallory SmartSeptember 23, 2023

Nora Fussner's debut novel, "The Invisible World," offers a captivating and atmospheric narrative reminiscent of the eerie charm found i...

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We Are Like The Dreamer: A Review of Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology

Mallory SmartSeptember 10, 2023

Though we rarely speak of it today, humanity has always existed in a captivating world of superstitions full of myths of summoning shadows, broken mirrors, and ...

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Going Beyond The Curtain’s Illusion: a Review of Cardboard Clouds by Benjamin Niespodziany

Mallory SmartAugust 3, 2023

Prepare to embark on a surrealist odyssey of theatrical absurdity with Benjamin Niespodziany's remarkable collection of one-act plays, Cardboard Clouds, from X-...

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Random Occurrences

Mallory SmartJanuary 21, 2023

A Review of Jaded by Wilson Koewing   Think nothing of mind or spirit whilst reading Jaded. It is neither the time or place to do so. Instead, focus on...

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I Am Disappeared

Mallory SmartJanuary 20, 2023

A Review of The Craigslist Incident by Jason Fisk   “Women Seeking Men: I’m an 18-year-old female and I want to take a hit out on myself.” This is the ...

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Any Wish Fulfilled for the Right Price

Mallory SmartJanuary 17, 2023

A Review of Immoral Origins: A Suspense Thriller by Lee Matthew Goldberg   Welcome to a land full of gangsters, murderers, petty thieves, and mysterious ...

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ALL MY GENERATION WANTS: an interview with Austin Davis

Mallory SmartDecember 9, 2022

My phone just pinged and Austin Davis says that he’s cool to start the interview we have scheduled today, whenever. Hyped, I jump up from watching Wednesday, to...

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Scared Smart

Mallory SmartOctober 3, 2022

“Darkness Falls, Jaws, The Ring, Scream, The Grudge, Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: the Season of the Witch,  Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,...

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That Main Character Moment: a review of Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic

Mallory SmartJune 26, 2022

We all have bad thoughts sometimes and Nada Alic somehow manages to fit as many deviant thoughts she can think of in this enchanting debut collection of stories...

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Circles and Self Care: an interview with Austin Davis about LOTUS & THE APOCALYPSE

Mallory SmartDecember 13, 2021

It's 12pm and I'm in Chicago. Austin is in Arizona where it is 11am. Our interview is about to start so I'm rushing to make coffee and get to my Mac on time eve...

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A review of New Madrid by Robert Tomaino

Mallory SmartDecember 13, 2021

To step into New Madrid is to step into a new reality entirely. From the first sentences, it is immediately felt that the world that Robert Tomaino has built is...

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The 21 Best Small Press Books From 2021

Mallory SmartDecember 6, 2021

I don’t know what happened in 2021 because I’m still trying to process 2020.  Yet here we are at the end of it getting ready to welcome 2022 in hopes that thing...

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Don’t Panic: A Review of “Everything Is Totally Fine” by Zac Smith

Mallory SmartNovember 29, 2021

You can write a long book full of witty metaphors. You can rip off dead writers that graduate students write massive essays about. You can use a nature trope or...

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Nothing In Life Matters: a review of This Is What Happens When You Leave Me Alone by D.T. Robbins

Mallory SmartSeptember 7, 2021

I’m getting beat up over here trying to decide if everything is lame and pointless or if that's just a condition of my being a millennial. And if something is p...

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Street Sorrows: an erratic interview with Austin Davis and Joe Allie

Mallory SmartJuly 15, 2021

Austin Davis has a new EP coming out soon with jazz musician Joe Allie. It’s about his experiences on the streets with the homeless. Austin Davis is a poet and ...

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How Shootings Go Viral: A Review of Jeff Chon’s Hashtag Good Guy With a Gun

Mallory SmartApril 20, 2021

On this day 22 years ago news coverage about Columbine spread rapidly, and broadly. By the time the shooters exhausted all their energy from firing at their cla...

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We Are So Alone In the World: A review of The Handsome Man by Brad Casey

Mallory SmartJanuary 10, 2021

Recommended for: manic oddballs and lonely hipsters everywhere    When the world is upended, where will you go? Will your mind linger and wonder what’s next...

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