Fun news today out of Martian magazine: my drabble “Who Needs Words When You’re In Love” was published today. Check it out, along with the rest of Martian’s excellent brief dips into fantastic lands!
Author Archives: Elisabeth Ring
‘The Facemaker’ Revives a Forgotten History
Reading The Facemaker also feels like an act of witnessing something that shouldn’t have ever been forgotten. We did this to ourselves, from the standpoint of humanity, and over a hundred years later, we haven’t stopped.
Plenty to Scare in this Haunted ‘Home’
The haunting in Just Like Home is twofold: there’s the thing that goes bump in the night, and then there are the memories that lurk in every corner.
‘Killers’ a Romp with a Razor-Sharp Edge
Killers of a Certain Age is a book about aging and killers and betrayal, but its heart is oddly wholesome and comforting. While I wouldn’t call this a cozy read, it’s one that makes me look at the people around me a little more positively—and at the objects around my house as so many potential murder weapons.
‘American Summer’ A Nuanced Portrayal of Trauma, Humanity
While An American Summer can be hard to read at times, it’s not hopeless. Nor are the people Kotlowitz writes about reduced to stereotypes. Rather, he has clearly taken the time to build the relationships that foster vulnerability.
‘Drowning’ A Classic Summer Read
If you distill the most quintessential parts of summer and turn it into ink, the book that ink would write would look a lot like Christine Lynn Herman’s latest novel, The Drowning Summer.
‘The Wager’ A Harrowing Survival Tale
In fairness, at this point, I’d read a takeout menu if David Grann wrote it. But his writing, and research, continue to be rich and compelling.
In ‘Linghun,’ Ghosts Haunt More than Houses
In Linghun, the refusal to grow after tragedy is almost tangible, bringing with it cascading tragedies. There is no happy ending with a setup like that, but there is one that is as tender as it is tough to swallow.
‘How to Be Eaten’ A Fairy-Tale Feast
Although most of the stories don’t involve talking furniture or little, burger-scented men falling from air vents, seeing stories about strangers warping and reshaping around us in ways that may or may not be true is a fact of daily life.
‘Build Your House’ Rewards Patience
There are no twists of the traditional sort in Violet Kupersmith’s debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body, but there are a stack of stories that weave themselves around each other before ultimately tying a knot that can only truly be appreciated on the reread.