Tilt plunges into the catastrophic aftermath of a megathrust earthquake, as revealed through the eyes of nine-month pregnant Annie. Physically and mentally exhausted, barely mobile, she is injured and stranded miles from home after the quake. Annie quickly grasps the brutal reality that no one is coming to save her. Walking among the dead and …
Jane Eyre meets Shirley Jackson (think: We Have Always Lived in the Castle) in this Victorian horror-comedy. In the movie in my mind, Tim Burton is the director. Upon arriving at Ensor House, the new governess informs the reader with casual cruelty that, “It is early fall, the cold is beginning to descend, and in three months …
As someone who opts to read few books written by straight white men, I’m the kind of reader Dr. Oliver Harding—a 56-year-old white male English professor who fears becoming obsolete and who would definitely make a point of capitalizing White here—would balk at. And yet, I agreed to trust Jha and spend approximately 300 pages …
Think: Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, but sapphic and romantic. Leah returns home to her wife, Miri, from a deep-sea research mission that was only supposed to last three weeks. But after six agonizing months of absence, the Leah who has returned is as mysterious to Miri as the circumstances that kept her away. Foreboding and beautifully written, …
“These unbroken stretches of consciousness, days sometimes blurring into one another, seems just a feature of modern life, not worth complaining about,” an insomniac remarks to herself. Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a collection of short stories that captures the modern sense of malaise that is now more pronounced, more intense, as …
This delightfully illustrated graphic memoir is an emotional and straightforward account of self-discovery and acceptance. Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, explores coming to terms with eir genderqueer identity and asexuality in a way that is personal, thoughtful, and educational. Kobabe’s self-aware recollections range from uncomfortable and painful to awkward and joyful and liberating. The artwork …
I love to learn things from the books I read, and this book taught me so much— not only about the South Korean island Jeju, its matrifocal society of haenyeo (women divers), and its culture and traditions, but also about friendship, the horrors of war, loyalty, and grief. The Island of Sea Women is vividly imagined and …
