Bridget Collins has created a world so lush and magical and beguiling. A poor farmer’s son, Emmet Farmer, and the privileged Lucian Darnay are doomed to be star-crossed lovers, a Romeo and Romeo for the modern age. In this world, books are feared, as they contain peoples’ memories, their secrets, grief, and pain. Despite books’ taboo, they are illegally traded. As Emmet becomes an apprentice to a bookbinder, a field surrounded by ignorance, prejudice, and superstition, he’s set on course to rediscover himself. In a story of murder, magic, separation and ruthless forces, do Emmet and Lucian’s love stand a chance in a hostile world?
Verge is one of the best short story collections I've read in a long time, and as an avid story reader, that says a lot. Yuknavitch's stories are quietly haunting with political undertones that feel relevant, but never self-righteous or moralistic. We come upon each character in a moment of crisis--an eight-year-old girl runs black market organs to needy recipients, two sisters from a war-torn country swim their family to shore--but even in this darkness, Yuknavitch gives us slivers of hope. As she says in the dedication, this book is for "everyone anywhere who lives in the in-between of things," which really, is most of us.
Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here has everything you could possibly want in a book about ten-year-old twins who spontaneously burst into flames: humor, empathy, a great storyline, compelling characters, and, you know, twins who spontaneously burst into flames. Wilson has been a master of writing dysfunctional families for a long time now and his latest is the perfect example of his strengths: within a paragraph, if not a sentence, Wilson can go from witty, to devastating, to utterly profound. This is, without a doubt, the decade’s best book on twins who—and I cannot emphasize this enough—spontaneously burst into flames.
