Fiction Reviews

Pathos, Wry Wit, and a Yellow Mustard Penis: Renee Simms’ Debut Story Collection Meet Behind Mars
Reviewed by Jody Hobbs Hesler // May 28, 2019 Renee Simms’ outstanding debut collection, Meet Behind Mars from Wayne State University Press, captivates with fully-imagined characters who

How to Survive the Rest of Your Life: Vanessa Blakeslee’s Perfect Conditions
Review by Samantha Edmonds // November 15, 2018 Several weeks after finishing Vanessa Blakeslee’s Perfect Conditions (Curbside Splendor, 2018), I still feel these stories overflowing in my

The Death of Empathy: Anna Moschovakis’ Eleanor or the Rejection of the Progress of Love
Review by Amy Lee Lillard // September 9, 2018Coffee House Press, August 2018Paperback, 224 pp. $16.95 Something has happened to Eleanor, the thirty-nine-year-old teacher and

Avuncularly Pynchonian: Joe Ponepinto’s Mr. Neutron
Review by David A. Southard // March 20, 20187.13 Books, March 2018Paperback, 300pp., $15.99 You have heard it before: you are the lead in the

Exquisite Desolation: Emily Fridlund’s Catapult
Review by Sarah Appleton // January 18, 2018Sarabande Books, 2017ISBN: 978-1946448057240 pp. / $15.95 Emily Fridlund has had an eventful year: her novel The History of

Stars and Bright Signs: Tawnysha Greene’s A House Made of Stars
Review by Justin LaFreniere // February 27, 2017Burlesque Press, 2015Paperback, 196 pp. $16.95 Tawnysha Greene’s A House Made of Stars opens with danger disguised as play: the
GRIST FICTION REVIEWS

Dig Me Out by Amy Lee Lillard
Reviewed by Jennifer Marie Donahue | November 16, 2021Atelier26 Books, October 2021Paperback, 214 pages, $16.00 The ten stories within Amy Lee Lillard’s debut collection, Dig

Tree by Melina Sempill Watts
Reviewed by Melinda Backer | November 2, 2021Change the World Books, April 2017Paperback, 246 pages, $18.00 Tree, a novel written by Melina Sempill Watts, takes on the challenge

Pathos, Wry Wit, and a Yellow Mustard Penis: Renee Simms’ Debut Story Collection Meet Behind Mars
Reviewed by Jody Hobbs Hesler // May 28, 2019 Renee Simms’ outstanding debut collection, Meet Behind Mars from Wayne State University Press, captivates with fully-imagined characters who

How to Survive the Rest of Your Life: Vanessa Blakeslee’s Perfect Conditions
Review by Samantha Edmonds // November 15, 2018 Several weeks after finishing Vanessa Blakeslee’s Perfect Conditions (Curbside Splendor, 2018), I still feel these stories overflowing in my
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