Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel by Xochitl Gonzalez (2022)

July 2017
A Polish Wake It’s a myth about motherhood, Olga felt, that the time in utero imbues mothers with a lifelong understanding of their children. Yes, they know their essences, this she didn’t doubt, but mothers are still humans who eventually form their own ideas of both who their kids ( Read more... )

Very Cold People: A Novel by Sarah Manguso (2022)

Chapter 7
We all liked him, my friends and I, all the tough girls from our side of the school zone, and one day someone said that Will liked me. A dream come true, a girl meanly added. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t look at Will anymore, so I didn’t, not even one day in the hallway, in the ( Read more... )

Checkout 19: A Novel by Claire-Louise Bennett (2022)

II. Bright SparkI was with him. I’d done it, I’d crossed over a boundary. I was somewhere I shouldn’t be. I was with him-and he was with me. All weekend I felt him with me, wherever I went, all day and at night. He was with me very strongly when I lay in the dark, it was almost as if I was made ( Read more... )

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness: A Novel by Claire Vaye Watkins (2021)

Ten-Item Edinburgh Post-Natal Depression ScaleMy sister visits and asks how much a doula costs. Does a person really need one ( Read more... )

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (2022)

Chapter Five: Late August
Several people mock-groaned or whooped, followed by a smattering of applause. Zoe checked her phone; she had been there less than ten minutes. For the first exercise, Kyle asked the group to go around the semicircle, each person shouting out how they felt in that moment. ( Read more... )

Something Wild: A Novel by Hanna Halperin (2021)

Part IISTRADDLING NESSA ON THE HOTEL BED, Tanya has not been this physically close to her sister in years, probably since that day in their mother’s bathroom fifteen years ago. When she feels on Nessa’s cheeks that her sister is crying, Tanya pretends that she doesn’t notice. The danger of getting ( Read more... )

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the evil that swallowed her up by Richard Lloyd Parry (2012)

Part II: Tokyo
4. High Touch TownRoppongi was not especially trendy. For quality, variety, or good value, Tokyo had many more interesting entertainment districts-elegant Ginza, with its ( Read more... )

O Beautiful: A Novel by Jung Yun (2021)

Chapter 14Elinor grew up in military housing. On the base in Marlow, families lived in a concrete gray apartment complex where all the living room windows faced a large interior courtyard. Whenever she and Maren followed their mother through the courtyard to go to town or the PX, Elinor felt watched by every ( Read more... )

Other People's Clothes: A Novel by Calla Henkel (2022)

Chapter 2
I had finally built up the courage to bring in one of my assemblage sculptures to the pit. A hulking, piss-stained, most likely bedbug-infested piece of plywood that I’d found on the Bowery. I drilled hundreds of holes in the warped board, and with silver wire I’d carefully threaded ( Read more... )

Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas (2022)

Chapter IIPeople said this crop of youth was weak, but we knew differently. We knew they were so strong-so much stronger than us, and equipped with better weapons, more effective tactics. They brought us to our knees with their softness, their consistent demand for the consideration of their feelings-the ( Read more... )