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Reviews
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© 2020 West Trade Review
© 2022 & 2023 West Trade Review
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"These stories by Corey Mertes have a quality that is both raw and elegant. The characters are dreamers whose dreams spoil before their eyes — gambling addicts, ballroom dance grifters, Las Vegas dealers, a teacher slowly going mad, lawyers, writers, a right-wing neighbor from hell — all of them down on their luck, but neither luck nor love will save them."
by Trish MacEnulty
February 1, 2023
"An illuminated manuscript that studies the relationship between violence and domestication with a persistent and triumphant tenderness, Judas Goat is symphonic in its weaving of religion, sex, the animal kingdom, gendered expectations, the Deep South, a broken covenant between a mother and daughter, and, ultimately, love and marriage."
by Allisa Cherry
January 24, 2023
"Lynn manages to get into new territory here—the personal, the confessional—without sounding melodramatic or too retrospective, and he explores dangerous waters with the grace and ease of a much older writer."
by Joanna Acevedo
January 10, 2023
FICTION REVIEW
POETRY REVIEW
POETRY REVIEW
"Crane expertly incorporates the Orwellian politics of an increasingly oppressive surveillance state with nuance that doesn’t overpower the narrative but adds to the external pressures the characters face. Through sharp poignant prose, Crane illustrates the emotional roller coaster of grief, parenting and the power of community and resistance."
FICTION REVIEW
"Another great strength of the collection is its many layers of corresponding themes. These poems are not only about illness and pain in the aftermath of a traffic accident, but also explore the many ways groups of people can be ignored or unheard - or when they are heard, they are viewed with suspicion."
by Holly Cian
January 17, 2023
POETRY REVIEW
"Iver plumbs the highs and lows of what it means to love oneself and others from beyond the boundaries of the heteronormative, paternalistic bubble. Their poems reach out like missiles, fired at these rigid and often cruelly self-serving walls."
by Mikal Wix
January 10, 2023
POETRY REVIEW
"Women’s rights and abortion rights are at the heart of the novel as Ellen and Louisa confront the ways women experience sexism and violence, while also offering glimmers of progress in the long fight towards equal rights."
by Corrine Watson
December 13, 2022
FICTION REVIEW
"It's a coming-of-age in a world not-yet-developed. With a tender eye for sympathy and understanding, Rehman never pushes Raiza beyond her essence. She is beautifully, wonderfully, and romantically true to her family, her religion, and her passions, seeking the answers to all their sources without cursing their oppositions."
by Thomas Johnson
December 6, 2022
FICTION REVIEW
"Chung’s genre-defying collection breathes life into literary horror as the stories incorporate common fears and societal flaws with elements of the fantastic in the most chilling ways."
by Corrine Watson
December 6, 2022
FICTION REVIEW
"Maybe the antithesis to the great darkness and vast loneliness of social media is our willingness to be the light: to brighten the path of understanding to see shared humanity within ourselves and each other."
by Tara Friedman
November 15, 2022
FICTION REVIEW
by Corrine Watson
January 17, 2023
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