The City in Time: A Review of What We See in the Smoke

Posted by Augur Blog
On June 19, 2019

Reviewed by Catherine Lu Although the same city in different time periods can be unrecognizable, Ben Berman Ghan’s Toronto in What We See in the Smoke has kept some street names and locations even as the physical place moved from Earth in 2016 to Janus in 3036. There are seventeen short stories in this collection, […]

Gods and Disorders in Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater

Posted by Augur Blog
On June 5, 2019

By Anna Bendiy Ada, the protagonist in Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, is born “with one foot on the other side.” And as the hypnotic chorus of “We” comes to tell us, this means she will go mad. What follows is an intense and brutal journey of a woman who struggles to find her footing […]

This Little Everything: Trauma’s Persistent Presence in Natalia Hero’s Hum

Posted by Augur Blog
On May 24, 2019

Reviewed by Kate Finegan The hummingbird in Natalia Hero’s debut novel, Hum, is persistent, inescapable, an ever-present reminder of what the narrator has endured, even when she doubts her own experience. In reliving that night, trying to remember if she said “No” or only meant to, her thoughts are cut short. She “can’t stay with […]

Love of Science and Dragons: Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 23, 2019

Reviewed by Patrick Icasas Marie Brennan, the author of the five-part series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, has created a cohesive fictional work that trumps many sagas that have been pumped out in the last ten years. I love epic, multi-part sci-fi and fantasy series, but I’m always wary of how they end. Some authors try to […]

Indelicate Lady Monsters: A Review of Wayward Sisters

Posted by Augur Blog
On December 3, 2018

By Amy Wang I recently had the incredible pleasure of devouring the Wayward Sisters short comic anthology—a devilish tasting menu of talent from around the globe. Published by TO Comix, in their own words: “Wayward Sisters celebrates lady and non-binary monsters who are indelicate, impolite, and irrepressible.” The anthology is a perfect mix of righteous […]

Saving the Future By Stealing From the Past: Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson

Posted by Augur Blog
On November 22, 2018

Reviewed by Rhonda Dynes If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I just ate my first grapefruit the other day. As it happens,Toronto author Kelly Robson’s debut speculative fiction novella, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, is just as delectable. It’s 2267 and Minh is an 83-year-old “post-disaster” plague baby. Minh represents a dying […]

Exorcism of Gender Rigidity: A Review of Octavio is Dead!

Posted by Augur Blog
On November 12, 2018

It’s always a surprise when you see the boy you have a crush on having sex with your estranged father’s ghost. In Octavio is Dead!, a queer Canadian psychosexual ghost story, a young woman tries to come to grips with the death of the father she never met and in the process discovers that gender […]