Tessa Yang’s debut novel The Jellyfish Problem officially released June 2nd, and the problem is that you haven’t read it yet. The novel follows Dr. Jo Ness–marine biologist, jellyfish enthusiast. After her best friend dies in an accident Jo herself feels responsible for, she drifts through life, unmoored and utterly alone. When her sort-of ex calls afterRead More
Sea Creatures, Grief, and Lesbian Flirtation: The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang
In The Jellyfish Problem, Tessa Yang explores grief, community, and human connection in a story about a small island in Maine being menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish the local schoolchildren have dubbed Clementine. Dr. Jo Ness is a jellyfish scientist trying to finish her book and raise jellyfish sprouts at the small aquarium she worksRead More
Sci-Fi Meets Poetry: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Blue and Red are agents on opposing sides of an ongoing war through time travel. As they both find themselves tired of it all, they begin a clandestine correspondence, eventually falling in love. It’s a dangerous game they play, because if either one of their sides finds out, it could mean their deaths. Both takeRead More
Hunger at the End of the World: Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang Review
Land of Milk and Honey is a literary science fiction novel that brings to life a dystopian world in which a smog has killed off food crops. The unnamed main character is a chef that is invited to take a job at a mountaintop colony in Italy, established by an enigmatic man and his visionary,Read More
Love, Grief, and the Abyssal Depths of the Ocean: Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
There is a peculiar kind of sadness in telling a love story backwards, starting with its end. There’s the tenderness and domesticity of an established relationship, and the inevitable fact of its eventual nonexistence. This love story captures a relationship by chronicling its end. Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield’s debut novel, is a captivating tale told in alternating perspectives about a couple, Miri and Leah, the latter of whom goes out on a deep-sea exploration and comes back irrevocably changed. The book weaves Miri’s struggle to reconcile the slow slipping away of her wife, Leah, with Leah’s recounting of the events of the deep-sea submersible dive.
Resisting from the Margins in The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe et al.
As someone who enjoyed Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer album and accompanying film, I was thrilled to finally read The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, an anthology of five stories cowritten by Janelle Monáe with Danny Lore, Yohanca Delgado, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Eve L. Ewing. This book returns to the dystopian worldRead More
A Toxic, Surreal Roommate Relationship: Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
Jo, a foreign exchange student from Norway, moves to Australia to study biology at a university. She’s a shy and socially awkward young lady looking for a place to live while studying abroad. Things seem to look up when Carral answers her call for a roommate, giving her a place to live on the outskirtsRead More
A Haunting Gothic About Family in (Climate) Crisis: Private Rites by Julia Armfield Review
As an avid reader of all of Julia Armfield’s fiction, I was eager to pick up her newest novel. From the author of Our Wives Under the Sea (2022), Private Rites (Fourth Estate, 2024) promised to be poignant, haunting, and literary. Set in a future world where environmental disaster has flooded much of the world with ceaseless rains, threeRead More
A Tough But Necessary Read: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Review
Content warnings for pretty much everything: violence, gore, racism, incarceration, solitary confinement, self harm, cutting At the time of writing this, it’s barely been three weeks since the 2024 presidential election in the United States, which Donald Trump won by a handy margin. Although Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah came out over a yearRead More
A Future of Dirty Computers: The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe Review
This is an entire collection of short stories, but I am only focusing on the titular short story for this review. “The Memory Librarian” follows Seshet, the Director Librarian of New Dawn who monitors citizens’ memories. In New Dawn, the government cleanses citizens of troublesome memories that cause pain, fear and confusion. It allows peopleRead More