John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

A dark and spiraling mystery that probes into human nature, violence, and the supernatural, The Hook by James Pack is an original, dialogue-driven thriller. Searching for his mysteriously vanished wife after returning from his tour of duty as a Navy medic in Vietnam, Earnest Kemp is a determined and increasingly desperate man. His arrival in small-town Maine coincides with a bizarre and brutal murder, but he shakes off suspicions as he becomes enmeshed in the investigation, praying that it will lead him to his wife and child. Penned with a gritty grace that blurs the line between reality and something […]

Author Sheldon Greene pulls readers into a post-collapse prophecy of America with his stark and cautionary novel, After the Parch. Half a century in the future, the United States has dissolved and resilient pioneers of the ensuing chaos seek little more than stability and safety in a dry and burned-out world, as a young man journeys through California to secure land and hope for the future of his small clan of survivors in the face of perpetual environmental exploitation. Bran’s wide-eyed wonder at the dangerous world before him gives this dystopian slice of on-the-road storytelling an original and authentic […]

A lyrical playground of emotive recollections, Copper Child: Poems by Emma Mnaya-Buzy is an homage to innocence, self-confidence, love, and growth. Interspersed with vivid images that are both stunning and simple, mirroring the delicate and lilting language of the verse, readers are gently guided through meditations on mortality, rebirth, nature’s beauty, femininity, and the power of speech – a wide-ranging series of topics that manages to be thematically consistent. Wielding symbolic stories and universal metaphors with grace and creativity, Mnaya-Buzy imbues each poem with a visceral sense of magic and history, for a stunning and well-curated collection.

 […]

A frightening novel about America’s potential future, The Serpent Underneath by Julie A. Fragoules is a grim prophecy of societal collapse, and a rough-cut vision of what chaos might follow. Driven by a three-dimensional cast of familiar characters – selfless social warriors, manipulative power-mongers, incompetent politicians, and bedfellows of desperation – the post-apocalyptic narrative borders on allegorical, for a powerfully written literary warning. Further strengthening the prose is Fragoules’ masterful ear for dialogue, as well as her clear fluency in social, political, ecological, and philosophical issues, both current and imminent, resulting in a prescient and engrossing work of speculative fiction.[…]