Book Review

With many of these speculative stories rooted in sci-fi, the line between reality and metaphor nearly disappears, playing with a reader’s inability to clearly differentiate between fact and fiction when it comes to the realities of disability.

There is seemingly no situation a Ferrante narrator will not relate to a point of arcane science trivia. When metaphor becomes the primary vehicle for storytelling, the device soon feels forced.

As Beck’s research shows, naming is a vital part of how we construct and interpret the world around us. Names can hold clues to the land and celebrate its people and stories; they can also be used to conceal what came before.

A tightrope walk of a novel, Catherine Lacey’s Biography of X deftly weaves speculative fiction and fact into a story about love and abuse, a relationship turned sour and the lengths one will go to for their art.

Unlike many other acts who saw the quality of their music degenerate in inverse proportion to their pocketbooks, Tegan and Sara’s art has only increased in its popularity and reach. Melody Lau does an excellent job of highlighting these tensions.

Catriona Wright’s poetry book is for millennials who are climate anxious, financially insecure and over-saturated with the dark humour of the internet.

Equal parts Cronenberg and Ballard, the Toronto of Andrew F. Sullivan’s satirical horror is most effectively unnerving when rendered from the vantage point of foundation pits, damp parking garages, fortress-like backyards and underground tunnels.

What makes Beaton’s book so powerful and unique is her close watch on the day-to-day life of oil sands work. A glimpse into what a lunchroom looks like, assigned housing, a party, a ride in a truck with a co-worker you trust and a ride with one you don’t.