RaveThe Chicago Review of Books\"Samanta Schweblin is the master of dread. Her stories are part of the growing literary movement that mixes psychological and social realism with touches of horror and suspense ... This new collection...will pull in readers and leave them, shivering, in the dark ... This is what has made Schweblin the icon of a rising genre, a master of the unsettling short tale. She unsettles readers, leaves them uncertain, leaves her protagonists still trembling. Inhabiting one moment of their lives forever, repeating it constantly, turning it over in their hands. Schweblin evokes our own darkest fears and deepest hurts. She reaches into a hole in her throat and touches something deep within all of us, a probing hurt that aches in all of our chests the same. She evokes dread, grief, death, fear, illuminates them, and leaves the reader to mediate within them—to turn her questions over in their hands, and see how they illuminate our own inner shadows.\
MixedChicago Review of BooksMcBride’s dream-like style...continues to be the star that keeps her stories moving forward. Language rolls and dips, reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s experiments in The Waves ... Occasionally, the book leans on its style more than it should ... May feel a little on the nose ... Style and plot choices leave the reader slightly outside ... The impact, then, is not the same as the first book McBride gave readers, and so lacks some of the gritty corners and dark shadows of that first ... While McBride’s style is still exquisite, other elements of execution needed more work for this sequel to have a satisfying arc.
PositiveChicago Review of BooksOn the surface, this novel is deceptively simple, even at risk of feeling trite ... But it’s all much twistier than that ... The writing is urgent and fevered, even among the detailed descriptions of public transit ... A winding, poetic narrative with few stable platforms on which to rest ... Readers willing to come along for the ride will be equal parts startled and moved by this bold tale ... Translated vividly from Korean.
PositiveChicago Review of BooksDoesn’t present a solution so much as a suggestion around the edges. Confronting the youth of the activists and the solid truths of their elders, Dori and Iris are able to find possibilities lurking.
RaveChicago Review of BooksMcConaghy weaves her questions into a story filled with intensely real-feeling characters and their strong emotions ... An exceptional book that hands readers a bittersweet helping of sorrow and joy, sounding a clarifying call towards a symbiotic survival that prioritizes our need to do more than simply subsist: to put trust in each other and in the nature that surrounds us.
MixedChicago Review of BooksGarcia plays with genre and metafiction in a way that will attract many readers, but confuse others ... It’s hard to say precisely what Garza wants from us. Many readers enjoy a good literary mystery, turning pages back and forth and trying to piece together clues, but the battle to figure out who is speaking in a given chapter, or who they’re referencing, can unnecessarily confuse more interesting questions such as unreliable narrators or themes of gender inversion ... Fascinating riddles and questions are unfortunately hidden behind what may be one too many experiments in this newest outing by Garza.
Mariana Enriquez
PositiveChicago Review of BooksChilling stories ... In Megan McDowell’s strong translation, Enríquez is at her best combining fantastical flair with real-life horrors that we prefer to look away from ... The sometimes unfortunate side of horror: just as often as it can be radical and challenge conventions, it can also fall victim to the same reductive stereotypes we see around us everyday.
Garth Greenwell
RaveThe Chicago Review of Books\"Greenwell captures an entry into that world perfectly, in this novel that is hazy, slow, thoughtful, and yet suspenseful, dreadful, and anxious, cementing his place in the literature of chronic illness while putting another poetic, rich work of fiction on our bookshelves.\
