Bella Moses, Book Reviewer

Book Review

Mount Verity

by Bella Moses

In Therese Bohman’s coming-of-age novel "Mount Verity", a childhood tragedy alters the trajectory of an artist’s life. On Easter Eve in 1989, Hannah’s older brother Erik disappears during a midnight trip to a mountain with a mythic... Read More

Book Review

The Gods in Small Doses

by Bella Moses

In Josh Bell’s short story collection The Gods in Small Doses, vibrant mythical and mundane characters face uncanny, darkly comic circumstances. These eccentric, poignant stories oscillate between moods, settings, and genres. They... Read More

Book Review

Ever Since We Small

by Bella Moses

Generations of women wrestle with an inherited legacy of trauma in Celeste Mohammed’s sprawling novel-in-stories "Ever Since We Small". Split into two sections, “Then” and “Now,” the novel does a masterful job of capturing the... Read More

Book Review

The Mushroom Gatherer

by Bella Moses

In Viktorie Hanišová’s lyrical novel "The Mushroom Gatherer", a woman uncovers painful childhood memories that lie in wait beneath the surface of her quiet life. In the seven years since she ran away from home and never looked back,... Read More

Book Review

Oleander Marriage

by Bella Moses

Eleanor Lerman’s poignant poetry collection reflects on the forces of nostalgia, love, loss, and grief that shape personal and communal history. Oleander, a flowering shrub known for its stunning beauty and dangerous toxicity, is... Read More

Book Review

The Life of Violet

by Bella Moses

The interconnected early stories in Virginia Woolf’s "The Life of Violet" have radical perspectives on women’s friendships, independence, and places in society. Violet, a giantess inspired by Woolf’s lifelong friend Violet... Read More

Book Review

Open Turns

by Bella Moses

Triumphs do not come in the form a young immigrant expected in the nuanced memoir "Open Turns". Hendrika de Vries’s moving memoir "Open Turns" is about facing postwar displacement and discrimination in Australia. In war-torn Amsterdam,... Read More

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