Legends, Lattes, and Lament: The Necessity of Pain in “Cozy” Fiction
Cozy fiction works best when contrasted against harsh emotional, material, or political realities.
On Disillusionment, the End of Empire, and 9/11 Memes (Oh Yeah, and His New Novel): An Interview with Ron Currie Jr.
A lazier writer would market this as “The Golden Girls meets Breaking Bad.”
Shirley Jackson, Hangsaman, and the Horror of False Freedom
The real tragedy is believing yourself free when freedom is impossible.
Lev Grossman’s Neoliberal Hell on Earth: The True Terror Behind The Magicians
Imagine if Pod Save America ran a magic school.
An Unintended Critique of Manifest Destiny in H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness
On dismal failure and death drives.
Claire Keegan and the Value of Waiting a Long Time for Something Short
What we lose when we value production over precision.
Forget Edgar Allen Poe, What About Wilkie Collins? A Tribute to the Forgotten Father of the Detective Novel
With 27 novels, more than 50 short stories and 15 plays, it’s time that Collins started to get the credit he deserved.
Ritual & Responsibility: Subversion in The Wasp Factory and We Have Always Lived in the Castle
There is nothing so commanding, right, or natural in the powers that be that a child cannot toss them aside.
All That is Solid Melts Into Air: A Review of Stories are Weapons
Several significant flaws prevent this book from being a useful treatise on the American culture wars.