Review: Hypnogogia: Book One
Hypnogagia is a zine that invites you to further explore the psycho-dream imagery its artists have created. It’s unfortunate that you aren’t invited to engage further.
Reviews
Review: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
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.
Review: Resist #50
Mat Resist’s DIY institution, which I first encountered at a Christian alternative music festival held on a former pig farm, hits a milestone. Surviving and thriving in the Anthropocene.
Review: Troll
Troll tells the story of what happens when one never returns from those youthful spelunking expeditions, but instead chooses to live down in the cave with all the bats, snakes and guano.
Review: Grace
Grace is an unflinching dive into the chronic pain of Holly English’s maternal grandmother and how it affected three generations of her family. I expected the story to be about an attempt to heal, instead, it focuses on more of the medical system’s failures.
Review: Girlfriends
Emily Zhou’s stories have a nice edge to them. At their best, they’re tender and have a nice undercurrent of emotion. There’s a resonance in her 20-something protagonists fumbling around, learning the beats and trying to make a go of it.
Review: X: A Novel
This speculative novel provides a window into a fictional New York’s BDSM subculture in an apocalyptic world. Where X shines is in its unique observations.
Review: Things To Do While Waiting For Your Bodega Sandwich
In Siah Files’ estimation, every bodega should have one of those cats who you pet while pretending to look for snacks. Preferably resting on top of a crate of Monster Energy.
Review: Nextdoor in Colonialtown
Rivas’s text — which remix actual Nextdoor posts into fictional dialogues — are both hilarious and alarming. Conversational and matter-of-fact, they reveal obsessions with securing their property, scrutinizing minor disturbances, and calling the police.
Review: Larange Enters the Corn Void
Amanda Berlind’s sensibilities come through in her illustrations, which seem to pulse on the page and vibrate to a sonic frequency not normally visible to humans.
Review: Bones
Bones is a joyful, seafoam coloured zine covered in skulls, 70s orange flowers, beautiful brown vines, and white specks of dust.
Review: Artist
Amusing as it is honest, Artist achieves what few can in creating a cultural product about artists that doesn’t fall prey to the temptation to navel gaze or air sour grapes.