As Nora, the protagonist of Robert G. Penner’s The Dark King Swallows the World points out early on, an empiricist “only believes what there’s evidence for. Things you can see with your own eyes,” and for much of my reading and writing life this has held true for me as both a consumer and a practitioner of fiction.
Each of the five stories in this collection stretch the boundaries of contemporary literary fiction and in doing so establish Galway’s unique voice and style.
Paxman is a whiz at threading this complex and evolving history into a recognizably Christie-esque formula, whether it’s Death on the Nile or A Haunting in Venice.
The prologue brings the reader immediately into a situation of nightmares, filling a mind with fantastic scenarios one would want to immediately pinch themselves awake from.
Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, is a towering achievement.
The Book Witch, the Wee White Dog & the Little Free Library by Lana Shupe is an unforgettable, and adorable children’s picture book about an aging Witch and her wee white dog who spent a lifetime travelling around the World on her broom visiting bookshops and collecting books.
Hello.
I know you are scared. It’s okay. I know, I know. All this is frightening.
Arthurian legends are reborn in this upbeat urban fantasy with a mystery at its heart.
Scarlet loves her job as Death’s Assistant. Working for the Grim Reaper, or Dennis, as he prefers to be called around the office, requires her to be organized, driven and efficient.
Sensitively told, richly imagined, and filled with unforgettable characters, Spelldrifts follows the next generation of young people after Fania and Nuna’s adventures in Spindrifts.
Chloe Gong’s adult epic fantasy debut, inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, is a fiery collision of power plays, spilled blood, and romance amidst a set of deadly games.
In this tautly written domestic thriller set in Toronto, Michelle Berry weaves together the story of two couples whose lives are about to be unravelled by the murder of a neighbour, a babysitter who has gone missing and the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center.
Mad Honey immerses the reader in a search for truth bounded by the everyday magic of beekeeping, family and finding peace, while asking how much we really understand the natural world.
A-M Mawhiney’s debut novel Spindrifts is a futuristic fantasy about the healing of the earth. As Young Adult fiction, it is written with simplicity of style, yet it is a complex story that looks forward in hope while addressing difficult choices made in the past and present. The new world that has “risen from the ashes” has hidden darkness, and it falls to the youthful protagonists to find the way forward.
© 2025| THE Miramichi Reader
