Literary Fiction Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Fortune 69 by David Heath ★★★★

Content warning for depictions of suicide and sexual abuse.

On the Internet, there is a website that caters to every depraved and bizarre interest on the planet, mundane or otherwise. Like the Wild West of old, there are no rules, except that you never let what happens there cross into real life. Here on the anonymized “Fortune 69” dot com, reality is just what you make it.

Fortune 69 is David Heath’s debut novel, previously the writing talent behind Bilateral Comics and contributor to several short story anthologies. Heath describes himself as an author of “transgressive fiction,” which is apparent […]

James Grimsby2015-10-06T08:18:24+02:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Driving in Circles by Rita D’Orazio

★★★★½

Driving in Circles, by Rita D’Orazio, is an intriguing story that revolves around one family and their secrets.

Henry and Cynthia Jones are celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary by going on a ten-day cruise. They decide to bring along their three daughters and one son-in-law. What could go wrong? Plenty.

After two days, the youngest daughter leaves mysteriously. Jat thinks she knows why Joyce has left, but does she know the whole truth?

The older sister Skye is seen by her husband and Jat meeting with a handsome stranger. Why?

In the midst of all this drama is […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:28:40+02:00August 24th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Shadows of Us by L. N. Nino ★★★★

Shadows of Us: A Novel by L. N. Nino In the gated community of the financial elite that makes up the Commonwealth of Richford Isles, William Schoenhausen, a naïve teenage heir to the Bernhard Schoenhausen fortune and legacy, begins a new term at the prestigious Richtown University. Looking for a way to show himself as worthy, mostly through a cunning scheme of odds and academic adulation, his easy-street plans are quashed when the school’s most popular girl, Julia Rechstaadt, happens to enrol in the school’s least popular course, an enrollment chosen as key part of Will’s scheme of flattery.

When every boy with intentions on Julia follows in their […]

James Grimsby2015-09-03T11:10:56+02:00August 5th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Afterlife by Tim Gurung ★★★★

Afterlife Afterlife by Tim Gurung follows Enos Bronte as he travels through the hereafter meeting many challenges along the way. He battles loneliness, isolation, barren landscapes, trapped souls, and other dark and disturbing visions as he attempts to navigate this difficult wilderness. Ultimately, the journey is worth it. Enos hasn’t been trapped in hell, he must fight his way through this otherwordly landscape to reach safety and redemption.

This is not a traditional view of the afterlife, and it’s more a reflection of Eastern mysticism than Western depictions of heaven and hell. At the same time, Gurung covers most of the […]

Henry Baum2017-03-24T10:24:29+02:00June 22nd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Approaching Twi-Night by M. Thomas Apple ★★★★

Approaching Twi-Night Approaching Twi-Night by M. Thomas Apple is an eloquent and tender novel about the minor league baseball pitcher, John “Ditch” Klein, and his on-again off-again relationship with the sport of baseball. He’s got a critical manager, critical family members, and his heart’s not entirely into the game. He’s feeling the tug of being a writer as well. This is a quiet novel in terms of scope, but in terms of the power of its sentences, it’s dynamic and moving. Approaching Twi-Night is literary fiction at its best.

Though the book is best suited for baseball lovers, it could be enjoyed […]

Henry Baum2017-03-24T11:04:20+02:00March 20th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Sports Book Reviews|

Review: Swim a Crooked Line by Al X. Griz ★★★★

Swim a Crooked Line by Al X. Griz follows several people’s lives in Nebraska: a farmer and his family including Chad who’s enlisted in the army in Afghanistan, and Rico, a linebacker for the Cornhuskers. Each character is richly imagined and contends with major societal issues. Swim a Crooked Line is a quiet novel about big ideas.

Griz is making a valiant attempt at writing the Great American Novel, in the sense that the novel is an epic that is very, very American. The book has Midwestern farming, corporate chain stores destroying Middle America, college football, and other uniquely American […]

Henry Baum2015-02-10T03:41:18+02:00February 9th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Men's Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Hot Minnesota Sex Death by M. R. Nesheim

In his novel Capital, John Lanchester writes about the effects of the 2007 banking crisis from the point of view of one street in London. In Hot Minnesota Sex Death, M. R. Nesheim takes on the same subject, also from a particular place, but Nesheim’s is a much less prosaic location, and he tells his tale in a vastly different way. When the spiritual leaders of an extremely prudish town die while engaging in a prohibited sex act, the citizens of the town fall prey to both a well-meaning but mistaken new leader and an entity determined to […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-05T22:25:43+02:00January 19th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: Crossroads Blues By Israfel Sivad

Crossroads Blues by Israfel Sivad is set in New York City, days before 9/11, where three friends, writer Andrew, his friend Charlie and wannabe theater director Michelle are entwined in a life in the skyline, filled with hopes, dreams and ambitions. But then the planes hit and their lives are shattered forever, when Michelle is lost to the Towers, leaving Andrew lost in grief.

The interesting thing for me with this book is that I am married to a New Yorker who lived blocks from The World Trade Center on 9/11, and has written a fictional book featuring 9/11 (We […]

Cate Baum2014-05-05T21:35:14+02:00October 11th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|