Lightning Bug Hair by Haylee Massaro

While we were nestled together, You would lie sound asleep, while shadows danced upon the eggshell walls. I was awake. Inching closer, I used to place my head next to yours, on the pillow – Inhaling your lightning bug hair. Kronos had already marked these days, though. But, there I was in this moment, so blissfully unaware. Years have gone by and you’ve moved farther … Continue reading Lightning Bug Hair by Haylee Massaro

A Taste For Naming by Marissa Glover

It started with Eve in the Garden. A look, a taste of such delicious fruit —  Before the curse, names like hamor and gamel rolled off Adam’s tongue. After, the taste for naming remained: melons — grapefruits, lemons— pear hips, orange peel thighs, peach, pomegranate, cherry.  With this, man becomes master  of the garden. Paradise regained.  A lick of his lips, a whistle, a hiss. Continue reading A Taste For Naming by Marissa Glover

David Leo Rice’s A Room in Dodge City Offers A Place in Antiutopia

It’s difficult to talk about the work of David Leo Rice and not mention his natural predilection toward painting all of his protagonists as spectral (sometimes quite literally, as the dead narrator of “Joey in Vermont” in The Opiate, Vol. 2 showed us). His knack for the details–cutting to the core of what “minutiae” really means–only enhances the natural hyper-surreality of his style and preferred … Continue reading David Leo Rice’s A Room in Dodge City Offers A Place in Antiutopia

Of All The “Precious” Celebrity Book Releases, Grimes’ Forthcoming Novel Will Probably be the Least Vexing

Grimes, presumable author name Claire Boucher, isn’t like other famous waifs (well, maybe not all of them were waifish) when it comes to the book publishing scene. Rather than churning out a memoir for financial gain, it seems that Grimes is actually planning to invest the twenty to twenty-five years necessary to create a true masterpiece. And with her scholarly background, citing such classic literature as … Continue reading Of All The “Precious” Celebrity Book Releases, Grimes’ Forthcoming Novel Will Probably be the Least Vexing

While Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling is Mostly a “Sophisticated” Twilight, One Can At Least Glean That the Vampire/Human Relationship is an Allegory for Slavery

When Fledgling first came out in 2005, it once again put Octavia E. Butler on the map as an author. Capitalizing on the then current zeitgeist of the vampire story (the Twilight series was released on October 5 to Fledgling‘s September 8), Butler’s writing style throughout often smacks of the sentiment, “I need a paycheck.” Its rather on the nose motif of the old guard’s contempt … Continue reading While Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling is Mostly a “Sophisticated” Twilight, One Can At Least Glean That the Vampire/Human Relationship is an Allegory for Slavery

The Eater (Ormstrongt Xperimant #9) by David Z. Morris

The grey slate windowed walls rose like cliffs on every side, a strip of sky traversed by flying spans, staircases to higher and lower levels, railcars weaving on steel beams. The man-boy was hungry and on every side were ground-level windowed gatherings where squat-faced men sat in rows at counters, staring out at him with full mouths. The man-boy was in a strangest land. He … Continue reading The Eater (Ormstrongt Xperimant #9) by David Z. Morris