All articles filed in Fiction

Who here knew orphan trains were a thing?  I, for one, had no idea that through the 1920s, the Children’s Aid Society transported hundreds of thousands of orphaned children from busy Northeastern cities to the rural Midwest in the hopes of giving them new lives.  The idea was that children would have a better chance…

To say Celeste has a fetish would be a gross understatement.  She is beyond just “turned on” by 14-year old boys.  She likes them exclusively, to the point that she must drug herself to have sex with her [age-appropriate] husband.  She is incredibly specific in her tastes – not too muscular so they still seem boyish,…

The “rich” in this novel’s title is a vast understatement.  These are people who own five homes, fly only on their private planes, and spend $250,000 on a single dress.  It’s absurd…which is exactly why I lapped up ever juicy page.  I had no idea that this level of wealth existed, nor does Rachel Chu when…

Annie and Buster Fang grew up as part of their parents strange performance art.  As soon as they could, they busted out of their childhood homes and tried to forge their own paths as an actress and writer, respectively.  Turns out, being forced to participate in weird performances didn’t train them to lead normal, well…

When it was becoming apparent that I was becoming a real bookworm and bored with the novels around me, my Mom introduced me to Agatha Christie.  I fell in love with her mysteries and the gradual unraveling of secrets.  It had been years since I had read anything by Christie, but when I saw one…

Frankie Rowley describes herself as “temporizing.”  Though she has steadily held a job as an aid worker in Africa, she never felt it was her true home.  In search of something more permanent, she visits her family in New Hampshire, unsure if she will leave. The town of Pomeroy, New Hampshire is a sleepy town…

Three Chinese girls meet on the streets of San Francisco and immediately link themselves together for the next ten years.  They have little in common other than their desire to escape their current lives and the hole that is missing from never having real friends.  Grace, a wide-eyed innocent, has left her small, Midwestern town…

“The Goldfinch” is intimidating.  It is a 771 page hardcover that really weighs down my tote bag on my commute to work.  I think that’s the reason I put off reading it for so long.  But “long and heavy” is no longer a valid excuse when the novel is on every best list and then…

When Amelia commits suicide by jumping off the roof of her elite New York City prep school, things don’t quite add up for her mother.  Amelia was happy and never showed any of the signs, but Kate doesn’t start asking questions until she gets a mysterious text from a blocked number telling her Amelia didn’t…