BOOKLOVES

There are four kinds of Orha in the Queendom of Nenamor: Mudmouths, Sparkmouths, Gustmouths, and Floodmouths, like Corith and her best friend, Zennia. They’re wards of the state, destined at age 18 for a mandatory service placement. A month ago, Zennia was sent to be the Floodmouth at House Shearwater, which like all noble houses […]

Invisible illnesses like endometriosis, Lyme disease, and long Covid typically present as a constellation of vague, sometimes intermittent symptoms that include pain, chronic fatigue, and brain fog. As different as these conditions are from each other, they are also similar in how misunderstood they are in the medical community. Drawing on cultural history and interviews […]

Luke Wells is trying to locate his missing Uncle Deke when he makes two shocking discoveries at Deke’s remote mountain cabin. First, his psychic talents tell him that the cabin was the site of violent crime, and second that Deke has been living there with Bea Harper. The Wells and Harper families have been enemies […]

A child with two black buns, whom readers may recognize from Forman and Figueroa’s Like So (2024), is thrilled to greet the day. Accompanied by Mama, the young narrator frolics through lush grass, dances a butterfly ballet, and wades in the sea; at last, the two cuddle together by the shore. Magic and movement are […]

The key lines and uplifting sentiments chosen for this “erasure poem” sometimes show their age, but they still make inspiring reading. The text floats on Lewis’ evocative images of opening doorways and marching footsteps, of small figures standing on a mountaintop or rising through clouds, and of hands shaping a heart or holding a tool. […]

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lichtblau focuses on Orange County, California, “a petri dish for young white supremacists anxious to take back their culture from minorities they see as an existential threat.” There, one young man—disaffected, taught by his conservative father to despise gay people, obsessed with Nazi ideology—targeted a classmate, gay and Jewish, and murdered him. […]