When I was thinking about how to begin my review of Andrew Van Wey’s Foresaken, I gave serious thought to starting with these three words: “This book sucks.”  But when I floated this idea to my wife she talked me out of it, arguing it wasn’t professional, wasn’t much of a review, and in any event, wasn’t really fair.  After …

Poisonous, the latest novella by Tommy B. Smith is a rarity of its format.  Where I’d always believed novellas should have an economy of storytelling, and a propulsive quality to the writing, making the story readable in one or two sittings – think of the collection Different Seasons, by Stephen King, and how easily digestible it is – Mr. Smith …

There’s no sense trying to hide it, or trying to tap dance around certainly elements of this book, because some people might find those same elements a deal-breaker and I don’t want to waste their time reading a review for a novel they wouldn’t read anyway, but Zombielicious, Timothy McGivney’s debut novel, contains not one instance of man-on-man love, but …

Mask of Cybele, the new novel by Erik Greenman, published as an e-book for multiple platforms, is the kind of book that gives self-publishing and POD books a bad name. It is tedious, boring, lacks a narrative drive and conflict, and is nothing short of a self-indulgent mess. It is the type of book that traditional publishers would shun, as it lacks …

Years ago, back before she became a blowhard talk-show host and everything kind of went sideways, to a certain extent, for Rosie O’Donnell, she was a movie ‘star’ –at least in the loosest sense of the word. Well, as a star, one of the things she regularly found herself doing was press for the films she was in. Sometimes this …

First, a confession: It seems whenever I start a review, I tend to go immediately off into tangent-territory, usually via a self-conscious aside, where I feel the need to give some of my own personal history as an attempt to give my review context. My wife likes to think I do this because I’m being difficult, but being difficult has …