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by Mary Ruefle You grow old.You love everybody.You forgive everyone.You think: we are all leavesdragged along by a wheel.Then comes a splendid spottedyellow one—ah, distinction! And in that momentyou are dragged under.
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by Akwaeke Emezi 4/5 I recently read Akwaeke Emezi’s poetry for the first time and loved it, so it’s no surprise I was a fan of their prose, too. Little Rot is intense, fast-paced, and filled with surprising twists and turns. I read it for a book club, and we all agreed that it would make a riveting action film should a screenwriter decide to tackle an adaptation. The plot of the novel takes place over the span of slightly more than 24 hours. For a piece that includes so many alternating characters and viewpoints, it’s surprisingly intricate and detailed…
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A shotgun in the backyard silences the barking. Don’t misunderstand me, the man has not shot his dog. In the morning, when the man wakes, the bitch will be gone, her only trace the holes she chewed in his once-brand-new suede leather boots. The other dogs will howl until they tire of the raucous and return to lick the man’s bare feet while he weeps. The man, who will witness the great return. The man, who only cries when he’s not alone. The man, who forgets he was something else first. He prays for the end…
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by KB Brookins In the beginning, heaven begat earth & earthbegat Sunday. For this one, I’m sitting in a desk chaircrafted by hands, all somewhere unawarethat they’re now touching bare skin. Thisis all the proof I needed, but I’m feeling generouswith language, so I’ll try to make this quick: in the dreams of my dearest enemies, I am kissing dirthandled by a million years of fertilizer & deadskin in a casket made by the son of someone or a sibling that was loved by many. Everything that existshas a birthstory. Some days, I touch mud just to high-fivethe humans that willed it.…
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by Mona Awad After reading most of Mona Awad’s repertoire and discussing them with friends, I’ve come to the conclusion that whether or not someone likes one of her books depends primarily on how much they connect to the situations being satirized. I have friends who are obsessed with Bunny, who thought All’s Well was boring as hell, and who love the fairytale-style of Rouge. Personally, I don’t like Awad’s writing style in general but I am intrigued by her method of choosing niche, personal subject matter that’s almost akin to telling an inside joke—if you get it, you get…
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by Aimee Nezhukumatathil If by real you mean as real as a shark tooth stuckin your heel, the wetness of a finished lollipop stick,the surprise of a thumbtack in your purse—then Yes, every last page is true, every nuance,bit, and bite. Wait. I have made them up—all of them—and when I say I am married, it means I marriedall of them, a whole neighborhood of past loves.Can you imagine the number of bouquets, how manyslices of cake? Even now, my husbands plan a great mealfor us—one chops up some parsley, one stirs a bubbling poton the stove. One changes the…
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by Ursula Villarreal-Moura 4/5 I picked this up from a bookstore down the street called Gladys Books and Wine. It was a random choice–I’d never heard of the title or author before–and I’m so glad I stumbled onto it. Like Happiness tackles the same subject matter that’s been rising in popularity since the MeToo movement first started a few years ago, but it does so in what I find to be a particularly unique and compelling way. The story jumps back and forth between the narrator’s interactions with a journalist regarding her former ambiguous relationship with a famous author and…
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You know the line: it’s not you, it’s me. You were perfect, I swear. Couldn’t have asked for better. Even that one time you flooded out of nowhere, leaving me to drive to the auto repair shop with my pedals nearly underwater. Even when your cruise control stopped working halfway through my two-week drive to New York. Little things like these could never have stopped me from treasuring you, and please believe, they didn’t. You were my first way out. You were my first taste of freedom, my introduction to the idea that there are roads yet to be taken.…
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by Adrian Sobol The Moon demands to be takenseriously. Me too. So I write a letter,address it, lick the envelope shut. Dear Moon, come back, we have so muchin common. Let’s hang out sometime.I haven’t worn my floral dress since that summer in the commune,salting my body with sageto cleanse the houses inside me. The ghosts just won’t leave. They harbor.They feast. They say the sky is indifferentwithout you. Stars go quietone by one like distant ships. If I were a constellationI’d have burned outin front of everyone too. They’d call me Argosafter Odysseus’ dogwho waited to die until his master…
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By Maria Reva 5/5 Endling was my favorite read of 2025 so far. I discovered Maria Reva a few years ago when she had just published her debut novel, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, and I’ve been eagerly waiting for more since. Good Citizens was an interconnected short story collection that follows the residents of an accidentally uncataloged apartment building in Ukraine. The book’s characters and unusual style left quite an impression on me and I think about it often. Endling was no different. The plot is ingenious bordering on insane. I’m fairly certain no one else would have come…
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Emily Vance Brown 