RaveBustleWill this book be worth the time it takes to read it? In the case of Samantha Shannon\'s latest novel, the answer to that last question is a vibrant, resounding hell yes. A captivating story about queens, priestesses, warriors, and dragons, The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic feminist fantasy that is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones ... set in an intricately built world ruled by women ... Through its layered narrative and its inclusion, and often subversion, of fantasy tropes, The Priory of the Orange Tree explores the slippery nature of storytelling itself. The author\'s presentation of many different versions of the same legend invites the reader to consider the conflict between truth and the histories and cultural narratives you believe to be true.
Lucasta Miller
RaveBustle\"L.E.L. is an luminous and engaging literary mystery supported by thoughtful and exhaustive research. It is also a necessary story about English literature, one that cannot be overlooked.\
Amber Brock
PositiveBustleAn exciting romp through 1950’s Manhattan, Miami, and Havana… a spellbinding story complete with captivating characters, sweet romance, and fascinating female friendships.
Meghan MacLean Weir
PositiveBustle[A] gripping page-turner that will have readers rooting for Essie\'s freedom, and her baby\'s safety, at ever surprising turn. But what The Book of Essie offers readers is more than entertainment. It offers us a chance to explore our deep-rooted obsession with fame and celebrity, with reality television and its stars. The novel forces us to ask what role we play in creating them, and in turn, what responsibility we have for any pain or trauma they might cause.
Maria Hummel
RaveBustle\"Still Lives is at once a gripping and entertaining mystery, and a biting cultural critique that seeks to understand our obsession with the violent deaths of beautiful women ... Reading Still Lives is like being frozen in that feeling of fear, like being stuck in that moment right before the mysterious stranger lurches out from the darkened alley to grab you ... Still Lives doesn\'t just ask why we are obsessed with female murder victims. It also asks how: how we interpret violence against women, how we consume and commodify it, and how use it as tool of oppression ... an electrifying mystery, one that crackles with suspense and intrigue.\
Julia Fine
RaveBustleA hypnotizing fairy tale that explores what it\'s like to live life in an unruly female body that everyone around it insists on controlling, What Should Be Wild pulsates with originality, curiosity, terror, and pleasure. With gorgeously distinct chapters that alternate between Maisie\'s story in the present and her ancestor\'s stories in the past, Fine has created layered narrative about growing up girl and becoming woman in a world that sees your physical form as a wild threat.
Rachel Kushner
RaveBustleLike her peers in prison, a vibrant cast of diverse women with gut-wrenching personal histories all their own, Romy has committed a terrible and violent crime. Yet, The Mars Room manages to create an overwhelming sense of empathy in readers, for Romy and the other characters. It is not that Kushner makes excuses for the prisoners or their shocking acts of violence, but she does pull back the curtain of an unjust society that gave these women little life choices, and even fewer chances for justice ... A powerful and exacting examination of class, wealth, race, and the other social constructs and power structures that can define an individual\'s future from the moment of their birth, The Mars Room is a profound novel that says as much about life inside prison as it does about life outside of it.
Michelle Dean
PositiveBustle\"A well-researched and highly readable book that combines biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp celebrates pioneering writers who managed to make their voices heard, despite the culture of sexism and misogyny that actively worked to keep them silent ... While there is a brief section of the book devoted to Hurston and her writing, little attention is paid to other 20th century women writers who were not white, cisgender, and middle class. If anything, this flaw in the book only further demonstrates the utter lack of diversity in America’s artistic and intellectual culture, not just in the people who are creating it, but also in the people who are criticizing it.\
