It's the book which Moth discovers in Mr. Wentworth's study in Ami McKay's second novel, The Virgin Cure (2011): "The Witches of New York was the book I’ found most intriguing." "Listing addresses from Broome to Nineteenth Street, it claimed to be a reliable guide to the soothsayers of the
Even when Bernice is liked, she's not necessarily liked for the person she is, but for the person someone believes her to be. This is largely why she leaves herself, why she learns to fly. "I wonder how fascinated she’d be if she knew that I’d been fucked before I
Sometimes I buy books for the stories on their pages; sometimes I buy them for the stories between the pages. My copy of Porcupines and China Dolls was purchased second-hand at the Trinity College booksale more than ten years ago. Because of a handful of folded sheets tucked inside the back
Massacre, killer, murder: when these words appear on a novel's first page, readers are fore-warned. And, yet, the first third of Sara Taylor's Boring Girls (2015) is a coming-of-age story. "It was becoming more and more apparent that I had been right all along. No one could truly understand me, unless they got
It's with a subtle touch, but Nadia Bozak solidly roots the reader in time and place. House of Anansi, 2016 This is not an easy task, because Shell only grows to the age of seventeen in Thirteen Shells -- across thirteen stories, and childhood is inherently rootless. So the details
