Inside The Spiral: A Review of Joseph Goosey’s Casey Anthony, Renowned Trapeze Artist

Mallory SmartFebruary 3, 2026

We are all participating in the disposal process. That’s the first thing you have to vibe when you pick up Casey Anthony, Renowned Trapeze Artist, Joseph Goosey...

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A Review of John Tottenham’s Service

Dmitry SamarovSeptember 14, 2025

Sean Hangland—the narrator/non-hero of John Tottenham’s hilarious novel of retail horror and art frustration—has had it. His three or four shifts a week at the ...

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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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A Review Of Emmalea Russo’s Vivienne

Dmitry SamarovApril 18, 2025

I hate Surrealism. I find it tedious, humorless, and hopelessly indebted to Sigmund Freud—a man who did as much to obscure and confuse the inner workings of hum...

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A Review of Nathan Knapp’s Daybook

Dmitry SamarovMarch 17, 2025

A couple definitions of the word daybook: a ledger in which transactions have been recorded as they occurred and a diary. Nathan Knapp’s book isn’t exactly eith...

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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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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...

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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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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...

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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 ...

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When an Incorruptible Journalist Meets an Actually Incorruptible Journalist : Thoughts on Greg Jackson’s The Dimensions of a Cave

Andy BurroughsSeptember 2, 2024

There are books that make one paranoid and there are books that leave one insensate with paranoia. With so much content to compete with, it takes either a fortu...

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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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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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A Review of Will We All Still See Each Other Afterward

Dmitry SamarovFebruary 16, 2024

Charles Bukowski called love a dog from hell but Tyler Dempsey shows it to be an animal resilient enough to withstand arctic freezes and the weeks-long days and...

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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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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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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...

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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...

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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...

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Reliable Forms of Thirst: A Review of Paul Cunnigham’s FALL GARMENT

Ben DreithFebruary 22, 2022

How many metaphors are made between writing and the creation of clothing?  Social fabric, spinning a yarn, the weave of the text, stitching poetics—they seem as...

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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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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...

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​​​​I FELT SMALL INSIDE MYSELF: A REVIEW OF ELLE NASH’S NUDES

Keegan SwensonAugust 6, 2021

I saw Elle Nash read at KGB on a Friday night. The East Village bar was packed with the usual suspects: friends of the author, aspiring writers, literary social...

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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...

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Each Analytic Entitled Pestilential Essayist Choke: a Review of Neo-Decadence: 12 Manifestos, edited by Justin Isis

Ben DreithJuly 17, 2021

“The wasteland of the 20th century is nothing less than a reliquary. Those that came before us have left in their wake an empire of exquisite jewels.”       ...

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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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