John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Laced with acerbic wit and wisdom, Why Liv? by author John Sebastian Shifrin is a tongue-in-cheek triumph about surviving in the time of media madness, political decay, and the existential crisis that is our 21st century. The story reads as though the author distilled the anxieties and issues of today, then refracted them into a new narrative, creating an alternative universe that readers will intimately recognize – chilling, spiraling, and in desperate need of change. Managing to inject this much social commentary into a casually written novel is impressive, although some of the book does feel rushed, including many of […]

Author Andrew Ceroni pens a disturbingly relevant and poignant novel with Special Means, centering on a near-future dystopia with a conspiracy that feels ripped from today’s headlines. Intergovernmental deception, police brutality, unhinged greed, and hierarchical cruelty take center stage in this chilling story. The premise feels more journalistic than hypothetical, while the writing itself displays a strong and confident voice from start to finish. A morally conflicted protagonist creates a number of secondary conflicts that force readers to think about their own ideologies. Some editing errors pop up throughout, and there are some sections that drag due to unnecessary […]