fter the Dragons is quiet, thoughtful, and, above all, kind. It’s not easy to do right by one another, especially when we’re put in hard places without clear answers. Death, and how we face it, matters.
Category Archives: Review
A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
Josh Malerman does an excellent job at developing creepy, uncanny atmospheres. The House at the Bottom of a Lake excels at just that. Although I found the characters a bit flat and difficult to become invested in, I was thoroughly drawn in by their exploration of the strange, underwater house they discover. Locked doors, strange noises, and clothes floating through the water where no current should be all come together to create a read that will keep you on edge.
Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker
Melancholy and compelling, Caroline Hardaker has captured the narrow wistfulness of self-inflicted isolation. As we draw ourselves away from the world, tuck ourselves into the warmth of our four encroaching walls, it becomes harder and harder to connect with anything and anyone that exists outside ourselves. We chain our doors, check the locks, and keep ourselves in as much as we keep others out. While this is not a book about pandemics, or plagues, or even about quarantines, it nevertheless manages to invoke a sense of catharsis in relation to current events.
Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi
It is 7 p.m. on a snowy January evening, and Penny is a 13-year-old who likes fruity lip balms, wears leggings, and notices everything, like how she’s expected to wash the dishes but her older brother is excused to finish his homework.
Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell
133 Poisonwood Avenue would be stronger if it was a killer house. There is an estate at 35 Silver Street that annihilated a family back in the 1800s and its roof has never sprung a leak since. In 2007 it still had the power to trap a bickering couple in an endless hedge maze that was physically only three hundred square feet. 35 Silver Street is a show-off.
The Apothecary & The Carpenter’s Son by Johannes T. Evans
This particular microfiction is a short, sweet love story between a talkative, caring carpenter’s son and a nonverbal apothecary. Each day, the carpenter’s son visits the taciturn apothecary to pick up ointments and remedies for his father. Each day, he grows slightly more attached to the friendly, hardworking man.
My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou
When Niovi tried to smuggle her mother’s ghost into the new country, she found herself being passed from one security officer to another, detailing her mother’s place and date of death over and over again.
“Are you carrying a ghost with you, ma’am?” asked the woman in the security vest. Her nametag read Stella. Her lips were pressed in a tight line as she pointed at the ghost during the screening, tucked inside a necklace. She took away Niovi’s necklace and left only her phone.
Call of the Bone Ships by RJ Barker – A Lush, Nautical Epic Fantasy
The stakes have been raised, and the winds are changing. Joron will find himself flensed to the bone, losing everything he holds dear. He will be hammered and tempered into steel before he can live out his destiny… or reject it entirely and shape a different future from what has been foretold.
Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst
As an introduction to Sarah Beth Durst’s works, you can’t go wrong with Race the Sands. This stand-alone epic fantasy adventure features hair-raising monster racing, an older woman as a protagonist, and found family elements all set against a backdrop filled with intense political machinations.
The Ranger of Marzanna by Jon Skovron
I had a few frustrations with The Ranger of Marzanna. There were many things I ought to have enjoyed more than I did – I love the idea of magic coming at a price of your own humanity, for example. Unfortunately, I struggled to connect with the characters and found the prose to be mediocre at best. The dialogue in particular tended to take me out of the narrative.
Christine Sandquist 