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Reviews
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© 2020 West Trade Review
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"As with her memoir, When You Learn the Alphabet, which Kiese Laymon selected for the 2018 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction, Allen returns to the subject of the Black family and uses it as the centripetal force from which she explores broader social themes, such as environmental racism and police brutality."
by Mary Sutton
July 16, 2021
"Morgan Parker’s debut collection arrived with her bristling voice fully formed. Candid, smart, funny, it navigates confessional and political modalities with aplomb. It is the kind of poetry that keeps readers on their toes, sparring with her bob-and-weave style, her lines leaping out like quick, stinging jabs."
by Jim Esch
July 8, 2021
"Packaged with plenty of humor and an off-beat plot, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is the kind of novel that’s perfect for summer—it’s smart without requiring too much brain power. Not a mindless read, yet an entertaining one. "
by Rachel León
July 8, 2021
POETRY REVIEW
POETRY REVIEW
FICTION REVIEW
"Taylor set out to write an in-depth character study looking at people whom society might consider 'filthy animals,' but by revealing the inner workings of the characters, Taylor allows the reader to get beyond that label and realize that this type of marginalization conceals the humanity of each individual."
by Jeaneen Kish
June 24, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"While Mendez certainly renders shades of James Baldwin, Rainbow Milk also calls to mind contemporary queer writers like Michelle Tea, Lynn Breedlove, and Leslie Feinberg, whose queer autobiographical novels explore many of the same themes this novel elucidates. Jesse’s story is one that sinks deep into the bones of the reader and illuminates Paul Mendez as an author who is sure to be a staple both on best-seller and academic reading lists for years to come."
by Shana Scudder
June 10, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"These character-driven narratives dramatize some of the subtle complexities of love and loss, while depicting people struggling to find their identity and acceptance in systems, organizations, and cultures that are actively pushing against them."
by Corrine Watson
June 3, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"Unsaid Things is indeed a reflection on love from the perspective of twelve women and one gay man. Because of similarities shared by the protagonists—immaturity, a penchant for cigarettes, inarticulable yearning, and an anxiety that hovers lightly over their every romantic decision—one could easily interpret these stories as belonging to a single person at slightly different stages of life.”
by Gianni Washington
June 1, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"My Good Son is a novel that follows Mr Cai, a tailor in post-Tiananmen China, as he pushes his failing-to-launch 22-year-old son, Feng, toward a life Feng doesn’t want. Author Yang Huang, a mother of two boys, focuses on the masculine narrative, the ways a father loves his only son but also burdens him with expectations the son clearly avoids in pursuit of his own desires, while the feminine manifests either as background (the mother’s cooking) and obstacles (girlfriend troubles) or through Mr Cai’s interactions with a gay American man.."
by Kelly Harrison
May 27, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"There exists an intimacy to Lutz’s episodic style, a superimposition of lived characteristics one garners after eavesdropping on private conversations or people watching at a crowded mall. Her melancholic musings are intuitive and at times humorous, like those one might hear from a carping mother or old friend."
by Tara E. Friedman
May 11, 2021
FICTION REVIEW
"This book has so many things—complicated family dynamics, struggles with addiction, love in the wake of tragedy, abuse, rape culture, art, nature, animals, and real people with their own personal truths—all of which add context and invoke empathy for readers. Negative Space is brilliant, philosophical, and genuine, and was written for a father and for anyone “living with an absence,” which in our current climate, is everyone.
by Morgan Green
July 23, 2021
NONFICTION REVIEW
