The trauma at the heart of The Butcher is something wound as tightly around every detail as tightly as ivy on a tree. There’s a difference between surviving something and coming back whole, Veris notes early in the book, and it becomes increasingly clear that she’s the one who hasn’t been the same since.
Category Archives: Reviews
‘Brotherless Night’ a Powerful Story of Violence and Heartbreak
Whether or not the violence was productive, the main character shows, far too many people were hurt to make it right. When two, or more, sides are fighting, it’s the people in the middle who are most affected.
‘Fox Wife’ A Magical Tale of Revenge (Really)
As the various plotlines come together, the story does verge on zany, but successfully toes the line. And for a story that started with death and revenge, I was happy to allow Choo some coincidences (or, perhaps, twists of fate) to lead the characters to an improbably happy ending.
‘Fifty Beasts’ a Strange and Magical Collection of Shorts
Though many of the stories verge on the dark or twisty side of things, there really is a strong sense of playfulness throughout. It’s like watching shadow children frolic, or sprites dance, things that are having fun but can also devour you whole.
‘Beautiful’ Unflinchingly Humanizes the Invisible Cost of Modern Life
It’s one thing to understand that the status quo demands a human cost in some far-off corner of some anonymous country. It’s another to put faces and stories to that cost, and to see how steep that cost really is, and how our culture is complicit to it.
‘Want Me’ A Look at Sexual Desire Buffered with Kindness
This isn’t a titillating read, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy one. Yet the rawness of her recollection was as compelling as it was hard to read, turning Want Me into a thought-provoking exploration into a single person’s experience that looks much too familiar for even someone far outside of her singular experience.
‘Child’ a Powerful Glimpse into ‘Invisible’ Lives
It’s not easy to read about children being abused and neglected, or about prevalent drug use, or the conditions in shelters that are only tolerable because the shelters beat the alternative. Invisible Child, though, was never meant to be easy reading.
‘North Woods’ A Puzzlebox of a Story
Even in its more intricate and obtuse moments, North Woods quickly links itself back to its original purpose: to tell the story of one fictional geographic location through the ages.
‘Panda Killer’ a Story of New Starts and Hard Truths
The story is plenty heavy but never unbearable. And there are moments of levity, and of hope, and joy, for both Jane and Phúc, even as their circumstances make life a little darker for them than for others.
‘True Account’ Combines the Ordinary and Wonderous
I’ve enjoyed reading more collections pushing boundaries—topically or in form, or both—but The True Account of Myself as a Bird is a much more meditative and deceptively simpler animal that has left me with a greater appreciation for the seemingly ordinary things around me.
Ring Reads 