Review: "Beta Vulgaris" by Margie Sarsfield

Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield
Published February 2025 via W.W. Norton and Company
★★★★

Elise is broke and up for an adventure—and a summer harvesting sugar beets with her boyfriend seems like just the thing to put her in the black and get her out of her rut. But she hasn't accounted for the pulsing of beets in the pile, for the pressing need to return the dirt, for other seasonal workers disappearing.

This is a little weirdo of a book (not a criticism), and it's definitely one to be read when you're in the mood for, well, a little weirdo of a book. Having finished the book, I'm still thinking about how much of the events I can take as fact and how much of them I need to take as Elise spiralling; without spoiling anything, I'll say that she's not in a great headspace for much of the book. I don't think this is quite body horror, but at times it leans in that direction.

I'm not sure of Sarsfield's background, but if she didn't study MFA-level creative writing I'll eat my hat.* The plot is tight and specific—can feel a bit random in places, but in a way that tells you that the author knows where she's taking you. I wasn't always a fan of the way Elise's backstory was woven in (a little too much exposition), but she's very self-aware in that way that tells you—well, it's one of the things that tells you this—that she really doesn't like herself very much.

One to pick up if you can't always get out of your head and would like to be in somebody else's head for a while, perhaps...if only to remind you that your own isn't so bad. Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I expect the book will be very very relatable to a certain demographic. Would read more.

*I don't have a hat, so this is an empty threat; go with it anyway

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Say a Little Prayer" by Jenna Voris

Say a Little Prayer by Jenna Voris
Published March 2025 via Viking Books for Young Readers
★★★★

Church used to be a comfortable place for Riley—until she realized that her queerness would never be accepted, and until the pastor threw her sister Hannah out for getting an abortion. She doesn't regret leaving and not going back...except that she's been quietly in love with the pastor's daughter for years. And except that the pastor isn't happy that she left without his say-so. And except that after an altercation at school, she's been banished to church camp in Kentucky for a week...and now things are just a little bit awkward.

This is so far up my alley it's basically in my backyard. I love that although Riley feels rejected by the church, she isn't rejected by the people she loves most; her family has zero problem with sexuality, and neither does Julia, her best-friend-slash-crush. Better, the deeper into the book we get, the more complicated she finds her relationship with the teenagers who have been making her life, and her sister's life, difficult since they found out about Hannah's abortion. Riley is very much a teenager (her rantings in her notebook are ever so slightly cringe, which fortunately I think is the point), but on the whole things feel balanced.

Readers who have read Voris's Every Time You Hear That Song will be pleased to find a few easter eggs (though this is not a sequel and can be read 100% independently of Every Time). I read Say a Little Prayer partly on the strength of Every Time, and I'm pleased to report that Prayer lives up to the standard set by its predecessor.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Superhoe" by Nicôle Lecky

Superhoe by Nicôle Lecky
Published January 2019 via Nick Hern Books
★★★

At 24, Sasha is convinced that her big break is just around the corner, as soon as she drops her EP—but in the meantime, she spends most of her time in her childhood bedroom, whiling time away and feeling isolated from her all-white household. But when she picks one too many fights with her family, she's out a place to stay...and that's when things start to change.

This must be an absolute beast to perform—it's a one-woman show, and gosh but Sasha can talk. Rather stream-of-consciousness in some places, with Sasha either recapping conversations or relating both (or all) sides of whatever dialogue took place. The play also gets quite dark. I won't get into the details, but the play demonstrates how easy it can be to slide from a tolerable situation into an entirely intolerable one without entirely noticing it.

There's a big reveal at the end, which I didn't love; it felt like it was supposed to give context for the rest of the play (which, to be fair: it did), but it also opens up an enormous new can of worms. It would be hard to explore both that reveal and the events that take up the bulk of the play without, you know, doubling it in length, so I can see why it's not explored in any detail, but...I guess I'm not a huge fan of that kind of targeted shock at the end.

Probably not my thing to watch as a play, but I bet it would be fascinating for actors with an interest in solo performances.

Review: "Over the Hill at Fourteen" by Jamie Callan

Over the Hill at Fourteen by Jamie Callan
Published 1982
★★★

Sylvia is fourteen, a model—and, at the grand old age of fourteen, heading over the hill. Her friends and parents might not thing her modelling career is all that, but Sylvia is proud of it and convinced that it makes her special...and if she's about to age out of modelling because fourteen is too old to be sexy(!!!), she wants to get her acting career going instead.

This is ridiculous and outdated but also kind of wildly entertaining. Like, you can't criticize Sylvia for lack of self-awareness:

Camille, my best and only true friend, says that I'm really getting conceited over this whole modeling thing and that as soon as I grow a little pair of breasts, I'll be out of a job. Camille just doesn't realize how wrong she is, because you see, I'm not getting conceited. I am conceited. (2)

There's quite a lot of this (Sylvia being kind of awful but also okay with it), which ends up making for quite a fun read here. I love that the people around her are really pretty meh about Sylvia's modelling—they'd really kind of rather that she get her head out of her bum a bit and be a normal teenager. Meanwhile, Sylvia is terrified of becoming a teenager because she'll lose out on jobs that go to younger, 'sexier' models (parts of this do not age well); she's not ready for hormones and dating, and she's certainly not ready for the way everyone in the fashion world, to say nothing of her good friend who is a boy, seems ready to sexualize her.

There's a batty side plot involving Sylvia's father (spoiler, but also this was written in the 80s and not exactly become a classic: he's fired for spending too much time on his own products, then immediately develops a better type of lipstick...which goes into production and so on pretty much instantly, with no little hiccups like safety testing or FDA approval—the latter isn't always necessary for makeup, but because in this case it's a matter of colorant, it might be); that side plot is low-key useless, but I suppose it adds a side of drama and also gives Sylvia a chance to show that she doesn't care that much about the money she's making (the vast majority of it is in a trust until she's older, and the only time we really see her wanting to access it is when her family is in financial difficulties).

I don't know that I can in good conscience recommend this, but it did end up being quite a bit funnier—and willing to take risks with Sylvia's character—than I would have expected.

Review: "On Thin Ice" by Jessica Kim

On Thin Ice by Jessica Kim
Published February 2025 via Kokila
★★★

All Phoebe and and her twin Dexter want is to be on the ice—Dex with a hockey stick in hand and Phoebe perfecting her pairs skills. When Dex doesn’t make the cut for his team, though, and Phoebe’s partner is injured, it looks like their dreams will have to be put on ice—unless Dex steps in to learn pairs skating, help Phoebe compete, and keeps his blades sharp while he’s at it.

This is pretty classically middle grade, and it hits a sweet spot. The twins are set up as polar opposites: Dex is the outgoing, haphazard one, as interested in goofing off as he is in actually practicing, while Phoebe is something of an anxious perfectionist. They’re both grieving a major loss, but they haven’t found a way to share that grief with each other, each instead assuming that the other is no longer grieving. It adds a nice layer of depth to the story. It’s also really nice to see their mother grow too—she’s a supportive parent from beginning to end, but by the end of the book she has a better sense of what turmoil the kids haven’t let her see.

The skill level that Dex and Phoebe show is nicely age-appropriate—they’re good at their respective sports, but neither of them is going to the Olympics anytime soon. And that’s really nice—it makes the book feel applicable to a wider audience. I do wish there hadn’t been a budding romance (YA infecting MG…it’s a common thing), but it’s at least a fairly minor part of the book. This will go over well in middle school libraries, I think.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Maya & Natasha" by Elyse Durham

Maya & Natasha by Elyse Durham
Published February 2025 via Mariner Books
★★★★

For twin sisters Maya and Natasha, there is only one future: born the daughters of a ballerina during the Siege of Leningrad and raised in the theatre, they have never known anything but dance. Natasha is the fiery one and Maya the quiet one, and they dream of dancing together in the Kirov—until they learn that the Kirov, which tours internationally, will take only one of them to lessen the risk of defection. And so the fabric of their lives begins to unravel.

Being seventeen is an exercise in cruelty. Those unfortunate enough to be so know a little of the world, a little less of love, and less still of themselves, but not enough of any of these to avoid heartache. (loc. 891*)

I love ballet books, despite having no ballet background myself; I loved this one more for its so specific time and place as context. Were Maya and Natasha being raised in the ballet world in, say, contemporary New York, their trajectories would be wildly different than they are here; even if they found themselves competing for the same roles or the same company spot, their options beyond that company spot would be quite different than they are deep behind the Iron Curtain.

But the senior dancers busied themselves the same as always: they went to class; they leapt and spun and were commended; they stumbled and were scolded; they sat in history class and pinched their legs to try to stay awake; they stole naps in the library between classes; they snuck away to the storage closets and made love to each other, or pressed an ear to the door and listened to lovemaking and wished they were the ones inside; they ate too much; they ate too little; they sewed ribbons onto new pairs of pointe shoes and seared the ends with matches; they lifted rusty dumbbells in the gymnasium; they fell into bed and slept so hard it made them, somehow, more tired. (loc. 898)

The plot spans decades, starting as Maya and Natasha are born and then skipping ahead to their last year at the Vaganova (a, or perhaps the, premier school of ballet in Russia) and on through what follows. They are such distinct personalities, and I suspect that readers will each find themselves sympathizing more with one character over the other—and that which character you sympathize more with will tell you something, if something small, about yourself.

What is evident is how difficult it is to envision an outcome of their final exams and audition for the Kirov that will not devastate one—or both—of the sisters. It's a system set up...well, not for failure, but it's a system that ignores the humanity and personal desires of artists; there's a certain ruthlessness required in order for one to succeed, and for Natasha and Maya the questions becomes not just what but whom they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their own futures.

How quickly the rest of it happened was a great surprise to Maya, and something she would marvel at for years afterward—how everything in your life can change in the span of time it takes to wash your hair. (loc. 3598)

All in all, an excellent debut.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "The Bookstore Keepers" by Alice Hoffman

The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman
Published February 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

In this third short story in the series, Isabel and Johnny have settled into their life together—but life keeps throwing curveballs, and Isabel and Johnny aren't quite done with theirs yet.

This series has been an interesting introduction to Hoffman's style of writing. I haven't read her full-length works, so of course I can't say whether or not this is representative, but from these short stories I'd call her style reflective but slightly removed. I get the sense that she'd go for something fairly...home-focused but sweeping?...in her longer works.

This is again a fairly quiet story. It feels in some ways as though the series is wrapping up, but it also proves to be the start of new adventures for multiple characters, so perhaps this is just the beginning.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Miasmamist" by Tommy Wyatt Blake

Miasmamist by Tommy Wyatt Blake
Published February 2025 via Querencia Publishing
★★★

the wolf wears / my vertigo well: / sheepsoft clouds / trip over poppies / a little treat / for naked dreams (loc. 40*)

A tight wee chapbook of poetry about gender, sex, and the things that come along with those. Not one to read if you're a little squeamish or would rather not read about sex, but some nice imagery and symbolism throughout. As with just about any poetry collection, I prefer the pieces that are a bit longer; these are micro poems, which leave less on the page and more room to ruminate in what is already a short collection. I'd be very curious to read Blake's writing in a longer format, as they're doing some interesting things here—I'm just someone who will almost always prefer a longer poem to a micro poem.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Eleven Numbers" by Lee Child

Eleven Numbers by Lee Child
Published February 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

It should be just another math conference—in Moscow, sure, but a math conference all the same. But for Nathan Tyler, whose claim to fame is being an expert in an obscure sub-specialty of mathematics (in other words: nobody will be recognizing him on the street), it's not quite as simple as that...because his set of knowledge is precisely what the US government needs. The question: how far is he willing to go in support of his country? And how far is the government willing to go to get what they want?

Now, math and I are not close friends. I went to a school for science and mathematics, where I aced a prestigious mathematics exam and qualified for the next, even more prestigious exam...upon which I took stock and decided that I'd rather be in my international relations class (or was it medical ethics?) than voluntarily take a three-hour, three-question exam that I was unlikely to pass. So the highlight of my interest in math was skipping the extra math and going to class instead. But I enjoy how much Nathan is able to pull from some simple sets of numbers, and how much tension Child is able to put into a story that is, you know...about math.

Of course, it probably helps that Child is not really telling a story about math: he's telling a story about politics and intrigue and spying and prison. I won't spoil the details, but this story does a satisfying thing of withholding details, and then dropping back to explain context, and then withholding details—a thing that I would hate in a full-length novel (as a rule, I don't enjoy it when characters withhold information from the reader) but that works in something of this length. I read this as something of a palate cleanser, and it's satisfying in length and speed of action. I'm still not here for full-length thrillers about politics (or, really, any genre that is about politics), but in this form? Yes please.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Lost and the Found" by Kevin Fagan

The Lost and the Found by Kevin Fagan
Published February 2025 via Atria
★★★★

Rita and Tyson had something in common: They both had families who loved them. And they had something else in common: They were both living homeless in San Francisco. Different backgrounds had led them both to struggle with drug use, which in turn had led to the streets, and so it goes.

Fagan's The Lost and the Found tells their stories in some depth, based on months of in-depth, on-the-streets reportage—one of Fagan's particular interests as a reporter—and then years of follow-up with both Rita and Tyson. This ends up being both a general overview of homelessness in the US (and the policies that hurt, and those that help) and a compassionate, in-depth portrait of two of the people affected.

Being homeless in a big city, even with a lot of pals around, actually takes a lot of work. Not having a home to go to means every night is a coin toss, hoping someone won't cave in your teeth with a boot just to steal whatever you have in your pockets. You can find your regular haunts, and if you're lucky, you wind up at some place like Homeless Island—but even then it means putting up the tent or tarp or cardboard, arranging the shopping carts like a wall, or finding blankets to replace the ones ripped off while you were off copping dope. (loc. 793*)

This is reportage built on a long-haul project and slowly built trust. Fagan could have spent most of his time doing independent research and only interviewed people affected by homelessness for the sake of quotes, but this is a much stronger book for the time and effort he put into building relationships. In places I think the book leans a little heavily on foreshadowing and sentimentality, though perhaps that's an inherent risk of doing work where you get to know and care about your subjects.

In addition to telling these specific stories—and touching on some of the stories of other people living on San Francisco's streets—Fagan delves into some of the hows and whys of the extensive homeless population in San Francisco, and what interventions have and have not been effective to get people off the streets and into more stable housing. It's not a primer on homelessness, but it's useful context for those hoping to learn a bit more in the context of personal stories. Overall, a very thoughtful read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and might not be final.

Review: "Mainline Mama" by Keeonna Harris

Mainline Mama by Keeonna Harris
Published February 2025 via Amistad
★★★★

Harris had dreams: grow up, go to Spelman, meet and marry a Morehouse man, become an OB/GYN. And then maybe think about babies. But at fourteen, Harris met Jason, her first boyfriend and first love. At fifteen, she had a baby, which tipped her life sideways. And again when she was fifteen, Jason was sentenced to 22 years in prison, changing the course of both of their lives for good.

Since my family's expectations had changed, I knew I had to set new expectations for myself. Nobody was talking about me going to college anymore; I was rerouted into what my family thought was a good, stable job: working customer service for a phone company. [...] Now that I had a baby I wasn't supposed to shoot for the stars; I was kept grounded to set up a good foundation. (loc. 1504*)

Mainline Mama chronicles Harris's experience of two decades of a relationship that could never be on her own terms. From asking her grandmother to take her to the prison to visit—because she was too young to visit on her own, and her mother didn't approve of the relationship—to becoming a veteran visitor who knew the ins and outs and workarounds to planning her wedding in a prison, Harris had to grow up fast, and she had to learn a whole host of skills and information that most of us will never have to use.

Of all the dreams for my wedding, watching my whole family go through a security checkpoint was never one of them. (loc. 197)

From a writing perspective, this is a three-star book. It's solid and extremely readable, but it can get a bit repetitive and occasionally a bit soap-box-y (though—let's be clear—it's not unwarranted). But from a content perspective, this is five stars all the way. Harris's voice and story are so underrepresented. This is her story, not Jason's, though of course the two are entwined.

Jason was a twenty-one-year-old boy who couldn't cry in public, and the only way we could talk was over the phone, in front of everybody in prison. A gang member in prison couldn't be on the phone whining and crying. Couldn't be sad, so he got mad. All the sadness turned into anger, and sometimes it was directed at me. We went through things we couldn't or didn't know how to talk to each other about. (loc. 1091)

As Harris visited and wrote to Jason, learning the rules of one prison after another—sometimes driving seven hours for a visit, or sleeping in her car overnight—she saw, and experienced firsthand, how the prison system impacted not only those who were incarcerated but also loved ones. She was not in prison, but she was limited in when she could call and when she could visit; limited in what she could wear and what she could bring; limited in how long she could hug her boyfriend (and later husband) when she visited. And: Because they were growing up in parallel trajectories, able to see each other but not on their own terms and never within their individual day-to-day lives, they were not able to understand what each other's realities really looked like.

Without spoiling anything, I'll say that this book in its current form is probably only possible because of the way things panned out, and also because Harris is writing from decades of experience rather than a year or two. It's worth noting that this isn't a book about why Jason went to prison or whether or not his punishment was reasonable; it's a story about what happens to the people left on the outside. It is a complicated, messy story, but it is well worth it for her perseverance, her insights on what life is like for those impacted by the prison system but not incarcerated themselves, and for her clear-eyed view of how long and how far the ripples caused by incarceration can extend.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Review: "The Dollhouse Academy" by Margarita Montimore

The Dollhouse Academy by Margarita Montimore
Published February 2025 via Flatiron Books
★★★

For Ramona and her best friend Grace, an invitation to join the Dollhouse Academy is a dream come true. The Academy has created some of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry—entry isn't a guarantee of success, but success at the Academy is a guarantee of succeeding outside the Academy.

Meanwhile, Ivy is one of the Dollhouse's biggest success stories. She's been acting with them for almost two decades, since she was a teenager—she knows more of the Dollhouse's secrets than most. And she knows what Romana doesn't want to see—that it might be hard to get into the Dollhouse, but once you're in, it's even harder to get out.

They make it so easy to stay, surround you with a beautiful town, beautiful people, beautiful words. And once you taste success, you get hungrier for it, and you give away more of yourself to them without even realizing it. (loc. 2688*)

This is a twisty little story with perhaps something of a Black Mirror sense. It's clear early on that something is not quite right, but Ramona doesn't want to listen; initially, at least, she's too desperate for the promise of success. It's clear also that she's struggling at the Dollhouse, and it will take more than the skills she comes in with to deliver on that promise. I love the premise—this is sort of a boarding school story, but the setting is more ambivalent than that, as many of the characters are fully fledged adults. In a way more of a college story, I suppose, as they can (eventually) choose to move elsewhere if they like, though...if they're successful, they generally don't. The Dollhouse sees to that.

There were fewer surprises than I expected, though. The climax in particular feels more whimper than bang, but the "here is how the denizens of the Dollhouse are being controlled" was visible a mile away. Though I kept waiting for some kind of reveal about surveillance tactics, anytime Ramona ran off to have a secret conversation about the Dollhouse being sketchy (or, once, to share all of someone else's secrets with people who had given her no real reason to think they were trustworthy), any sense of danger turned out to be all in my head. I suppose I wanted something both more subtle and less subtle, if that makes any sense!

Ultimately a mixed bag for me. I'm curious to try something else by Montimore—her work seems quite high-concept.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Review: "The Welkin" by Lucy Kirkwood

The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood
Published January 2020 via Nick Hern Books
★★★★

1759: Sally has been sentenced to hang for murder—but first a jury of matrons has been enlisted to determine whether Sally is, as she claims, pregnant. They don't want to be there. She doesn't particularly want them there. Law enforcement doesn't particularly want them there, and the crowds outside howling for blood certainly don't want them there...but there they are.

This makes for a fascinating and dark and funny play that is simultaneously devastating—a reminder of how little women's words can count, and how little sympathy there is for women who stray outside the narrow lines society has painted for them. The question here is not whether Sally is guilty: none of the 'ten angry women' involved has any expectation that Sally will survive, and the goal is simply to determine when she will die. Only the midwife goes in ready to defend her, ready to believe that she might be pregnant; everyone else's assessments are based on what others will think and Sally's class status and whether they can get home in time to finish the chores. But Lizzy, the midwife, harbors secrets too, and nobody comes out of this unscathed.

An excellent, if depressing, start to 2025.

Review: "Release" by Tori Barkosky

Release by Tori Barkosky
Published November 2024
★★

Short memoir about life with (and, partly, recovery from) an eating disorder. This is about on par with what I'd expect from a self-pubbed book by a beginning writer. Chapters are grouped more thematically than chronologically, and they're quite short; at times it felt a bit as though the book was an outline with a series of topics that were each expanded upon in brief to make up the chapters. That's fine, of course, and I hope it was all cathartic for the author to write, but this isn't one that is likely to stick with me.