Alex Plays Catchup: Reviews from 11/20-7/21

So I’m terrible at keeping this website updated, so instead of doing individual posts archiving my latest book reviews, I’ll just do a master post of every review of mine that has gone live since the last time I updated this site.

The reviews and their websites are as follows:

Certain and Impossible Events by Candace Jane Opper, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

Stange Labour by Robert G. Penner, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

Two Plays: True Believer and Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares by Justice Hehir and Christine Sloan Stoddard, reviewed for HASH Journal

original kink by Jubi Arriola-Headley, reviewed for Gertrude Press

Heaven is a Photograph by Christine Sloan Stoddard, reviewed for North of Oxford

Salamat sa Intersectionality by Dani Putney, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

They All Died Screaming by Kristopher Triana, reviewed for Writer’s Egg Magazine (NSFW)

Remapping Wonderland: Classic Fairytales Retold by People of Color, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

Howls From Hell: A Horror Anthology, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

Thick Skin by N/A Oparah, reviewed for The Coil Magazine

A Gospel of Bones by Suzi Q. Smith, reviewed for Barrelhouse

After the Clouds, The Sun: The Alternative New Year’s Deferred Spoken Word Performance Extravaganza 2021 Anthology, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

Home is Where You Queer Your Heart, reviewed for Quail Bell Magazine

The Essentials: A Manifesto by David Tromblay, reviewed for North of Oxford

View at Medium.com

Review: “LeRoux Manor” by Liz Butcher

My second spooky read this year was a review of a Gen-Z haunted house story. What happens to Camille when she moves into her family manor in the UK countryside? Read my review here in Quail Bell Magazine.

Review: “The Realm” by L. Marie Wood

In one of my October spooky reads this year, I read L. Marie Wood’s The Realm, a speculative horror novel about the worst possible fate for life after death. You can read about this terrifying setting in Broads Non Grata here.

Review: “Cyber Smut” Edited by Julianne Ingles

Guts Publishing’s second anthology is a collection of literature about the internet and its effects on our minds and bodies. This collection features several amazing stories from UK authors, and can be read here in The Blue Nib.

Review: “The Oppenheimer Alternative” by Robert J. Sawyer

The newest book from award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer is a historical fiction novel about the birth of the nuclear age. You can learn about the various figures who radically altered the world here in Quail Bell Magazine.

Review: “Shapers of Worlds” Edited by Edward Willett

I reviewed a sci-fi/fantasy anthology called Shapers of Worlds for Broads Non Grata. This collection was new work and reprints from an array of international authors, with a great mix of stories throughout. Read about the collection here.

Review: “The Plot Against Heaven” by Mark Kirkbride

I reviewed Mark Kirkbride’s novella about the war between Heaven and Hell for Writer’s Egg Magazine, a relatively new UK based literary site. Did this novella make me think about life after death? Read about it here.

Review: “The Line Between” and “A Single Light” by Tosca Lee

My first double book review, I reviewed Tosca Lee’s pandemic thriller duology. The books follow an ex-cult member as she navigates a world plagued with a new virus that disrupts the U.S. Read about the series here in Quail Bell Magazine.

“The Birth of Noah” – Guts Publishing

So nearly a year after it was originally published, I remembered that I wrote an essay for the Guts Publishing blog about my short story, “How I Lost My Virginity in a Lobster Trap,” for their debut anthology, Stories About Penises. I discussed how the story, which a family member once described to me as “shockingly ribald for a Christmas gift,” came to be, and how various forms of collaboration led to the inception of the character Noah.

Read about it here.

Review: “Born to Be Public” by Greg Mania

I picked up 13 books to review at AWP 2020 in San Antonio before quarantine went into affect, and the 13th review has finally gone live on Lambda Literary Review. It’s a review of Greg Mania’s debut memoir, Born to Be Public. It’s a great book of a queer millenial coming of age in the internet age, full of humor, heart, and lots of pictures of NYC nightlife and questionable frosted-tip hairdos. Check it out here.