General Fiction
Plot: The author weaves an intriguing tale that spans two continents and depicts the long-forgotten era of the settlement of Jamestown. The author does a great job crafting a interesting storyline that holds the reader's interest.
Prose/Style: The author is a gifted writer who is able to mimic the language style from the time period depicted in the work. The even prose aids the story's evenly-paced flow, which maintains the reader's interest throughout.
Originality: This a unique work with distinctive characters. While the setting is historical, the story line is a work of original fiction.
Character Development/Execution: The author effectively creates distinctive and original characters. The reader is able to learn much about the characters from their actions in response to the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Plot: Wald’s My Famous Brain takes on a unique approach to describing life and perhaps what life after death can look like. Wald is especially adept at describing the complexity and nuances of the human psyche.
Prose/Style: A non-linear story conveyed to the reader through the ghost of Jack MacLeod, Wald’s narrative has a beautiful rhythm. The pace is aptly slow, but the dazzling prose does not disengage the reader.
Originality: This story of friendship, love, loss, and autonomy is a testimony to a life lived and how reflection and curiosity can set a person free.
Character/Execution: Protagonist Jack and his close friends and lovers are beautifully written and fully understood by the reader. Wald gives ample time and effort to their development. Similarly, tertiary players, such as Frances and Mussel, are exquisitely characterized.
Blurb: A captivating story through and through, Diane Wald showcases her skills in this profound story told from the perspective of a deceased genius, lover, and friend.
Plot: This thought-provoking novel captures a reader's attention with its timely subjects and compelling characters, and keeps them on the edge of their seats throughout. The plot points are believable, well-structured, and, most importantly, honest in their depiction of the various shades of gray inherent in every issue. This novel is engaging from start to finish.
Prose/Style: Rogers's prose is sophisticated and flows relatively well, with few hiccups. The alternative POV format works really well for the novel's theme and storyline. The dialogue is realistic, and even the internal monologue of an unlikable character is believable. The depictions of Utah—both the state's physical landscape and its cultures/traditions, including the Mormon religion—are well-written and informative without being didactic.
Originality: Rogers's timely and engaging novel doesn't shy away from questioning the big issues of today and how the Mormon and evangelical religious faiths are responding to them. Using the threat of a natural disaster as the catalyst that informs the various plot points and characters' actions is smart and works really well at creating a truly entertaining and enlightening novel.
Character Development/Execution: Divided up by chapters, each belonging to the voice of a different character, this novel does a wonderful job giving each a distinct voice. Their motivations and true concern about the questions inherent in both religion and life in general are genuine, believable, and thought-provoking.
Plot: Priester has a knack for storytelling and his timing for humor is spot-on. Each of the sixteen short stories ends with a laugh-out-loud moment for the reader or has humor scattered throughout. The reader will have many “wait for it” instances. Each story is well-executed with an easy tone that would allow these stories to be read aloud.
Prose/Style: Easy and well thought out, Priester has avoided extraneous details and uses delivery that is similar to that of a comedian. His voice resonates off the page as an expert storyteller.
Originality: Being able to cause the reader to laugh out loud in just about every story takes true skill. The subjects that Priester chooses might not seem humorous, but he not only finds the seriousness of each story but the lightheartedness as well.
Character Development/Execution: Priester has a grasp on the characters that he has chosen to include in each story. Sometimes his subject is himself revealing bits about his background through tasteful stories. Regardless, his characters are serious, humorous, lighthearted and real. Despite the characters being part of short stories, the characters are genuine and provide the reader with a glimmer of who they are.
Plot: The storyline here is clear and has enough change throughout to keep the reader interested. The scenery and characters change often, but there is a central focus that unifies the book and creates a cohesive whole. Yetmen has produced a wonderfully written, sorrowful look into post-World War 2 Germany.
Prose: Yetmen's prose is clear and heartfelt. The scenes are described dutifully, and the story moves at a comfortable pace. Yetmen expertly portrays simple moments with feeling, compassion, and honesty, and this pulls the reader deeply into the book immediately.
Originality: It is common to find books painting the point of view of Jews after WWII, but less common to see the perspectives of Germans, especially in a sympathetic light. This book delicately presented the experiences of common people during and after the war with eloquence and nuance.
Character/Execution: The characters come to life, especially little Amalia and Anna, the central heroines of the story, in their fight to survive. The portrayal of mother and daughter love is beautiful and authentic, and the rest of the players in this tale are equally well developed.
Plot: Yetmen once again presents the reader with a fascinating, emotional plunge into the devastation after WWII. The delicate romance between Cooper and Anna continues, slowly but surely building, while they must figure out their future. This book sets a romance in an unlikely time, between two people from very different backgrounds, and it works very effectively to keep the reader interested.
Prose/Style: Yetmen is a wonderful writer, and captures the heart of the reader through her work. She expertly is able to bring to life subtle emotions, perfectly describing moments such as the experience of a hangover at work, deep longing after a romantic kiss, and the solitary moments one experiences while pondering death. Her writing can bring the reader both to tears and to laughter, which reflects the realness of the life that she has so eloquently created.
Originality: A mixture of love, overcoming despair from war and copious death, and mystery, Yetmen skillfully crafts a book full of original characters, an interesting plot, and authentic emotions.
Character Development/Execution: The characters really make the story. They are very real and genuine, and the reader will feel as though they walk alongside the characters in this novel, experiencing life with them. They are not flat, but instead round, with flaws, pain, longing, joy, and growth.
Plot: Absurdity, wit, and piercing skills of observation allow the 11 standalone, but tonally and thematically united short stories in this collection to shine.
Prose/Style: Musgrave's prose is smooth and easy to read, humorous, and cleverly written. In the case of the title story: after realizing the absurdity of the premise, the reader is quickly drawn in by the wry narrative and ultimately entertained by this slice of life tale told by one of Lady Gaga's dogs.
Originality: Musgrave's stories blend elements of satire with pathos, providing insights on fame, human behavior, and love relationships. It's a thought-provoking, fun, and ultimately impactful collection.
Character Development/Execution: The author's Kafkaesque storytelling will delight discerning readers. The influence of literary masters is apparent across the works in this collection, while the stories--from references to the gig economy to COVID--are also firmly and effectively planted in the current tumultuous moment.
Plot: Hopping between current day and ancient Greece, the story of Cressida’s young adulthood and pregnancy mirror those of ancient Minoan women. The narrative is fluid, polished, and creative, despite using elaborate myth as its foundation.
Prose: Martin’s beautiful prose is amplified by detailed description of location and emotion throughout this consistent and creative story of women in the present day and ancient Crete. A blend of the Greek language is interspersed, helping keep the reader fully engaged with an authentic feel.
Originality: Dancing the Labyrinth is a brilliant illustration of an exploration in feminism and a journey through trauma. Knowledge of Greek mythology is not necessary to understanding the plot; all readers can greatly enjoy the immersion into myth and imagination.
Character/Execution: Cressida and her backstory are fully formed, both of which draw the reader straight into the pain and exploration she faces. Secondary characters serve as much importance to the story and overarching meaning; women are connected to one another across time and cultures. The development of Angela, Pythia, Ashtar, and Lydia are auxiliary, but directly linked to that of Cressida’s. Cressida and her confidants will help many readers with their own sojourn.
Blurb: This novel is sure to open minds to past, present, and future understanding of acceptance and healing, while imploring exploration into ancient and current meanings of femininity and belonging.
Plot: Empire Paladin: Realm of the Dead, a book that marries the physical and spiritual world, finds value in its intertextuality. With an opening excerpt from Paradise Lost, allusions to Augustine’s City of God, and copious Biblical imagery, Valdez allows readers to approach his story through these texts for a richer appreciation of the storyline.
Prose/Style: The book's sentences unravel in a short, tidy manner that leaves no room for trudging through words. The fast-paced plot grips the reader, as one's eyes travel quickly across the page.
Originality: In a plot woven with good and evil, the author’s story parallels the infamous tale of the devil, a rebellion in the face of rejection. Valdez provides a unique perspective that shows how easily emotions can rule the mind.
Character Development/Execution: While the book involves a few main characters, the author seems to use his protagonist Camila to deconstruct Romans 13—what it means to practice God’s authority when it is mediated by man. The book hurries through the emotional complexities, but the characters and their moral struggles feel real.
Plot: Ward has written a delicate novel about suicide and its implications on those who it touches. Although this is a bit of a trope and has been done many times, the way in which she interweaves differing stories of people who were affected is unique and insightful.
Prose: Ward's prose is lovely. She is able to throw the reader into the minds of her characters, as well as the settings. The reader can smell, hear, see, feel everything going on around them. Her metaphors, sentence structure, and diction are excellent.
Originality: The book features a nuclear family that is dealing with the after effects of a father's suicide. Although this is not a particularly uncommon theme, Ward has presented it in a unique manner, giving voices to a wide array of characters who have been deeply affected by this death.
Character/Execution: The characters of In the Aftermath make the story feel real for the reader. Ward is adept at writing characters of all different ages and genders, and this really plays into how well the novel works.
Plot: Public Enemy Number One John Dillinger becomes Hollywood Heartthrob Number One in this smart, witty page-turner. But will J. Edgar Hoover allow fame and fortune to come to his foe?
Prose/Style: Smooth as good whiskey, packed with the curves of Jack Warner's favorite starlet, the plot races along at a dizzying pace to a conclusion that will satisfy everyone (except perhaps J. Edgar Hoover) The authors effortlessly capture the style and lingo of Hollywood's Golden Age and the effect is sheer entertainment.
Originality: Whatever it was that inspired authors Bill Walker and Brian Anthony with the idea, "What if 1935 Hollywood had made a movie star of John Dillinger?", readers of 2021 are lucky that they took the idea and ran with it. A pure escapist delight and a Valentine to Hollywood.
Character Development/Execution: Walker and Anthony have studied both their noir and their screwball comedy to good effect, and the result is an intoxicating cocktail composed of equal parts hard-boiled and froth shaken, not stirred. The seamless POV shifts make for well-developed characters who engage the reader's interest and sympathies early and never let go.
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Plot: The Sound of Wings is an interesting narrative with plenty of twists, turns and secrets to keep readers engaged. The journey that each character goes through is heartfelt and will leave the audience with a warm feeling.
Prose/Style: The writing has an air of nostalgia surrounding it. Readers will seamlessly move in and out of past and present events throughout the story.
Originality: There are three prominent characters and each has a unique story to tell. Their haunting pasts and their paths to self-discovery are all different and memorable.
Character Development/Execution: Even though each character has a different story to tell, each one of them is relatable in its own way. The author has expertly fleshed their backstories out in a way that by the end of the story, readers will feel that they’ve known the characters for a long time.
Plot: The Prohibition era has long been the subject of novels, film, and television. Rather than sticking with tried-and-true depictions of affluent gangsters, Angle takes a more novel approach by focusing on the moonshine brewers in the backwoods.
Prose/Style: Angle’s use of dialect and phonetic spelling can be jarring at first, but the reader soon falls under the spell of the poetic rhythm of Rufus’s narration.
Originality: Angle’s gritty tale pushes the boundaries of what readers may come to expect in the genre. As Rufus and Jolene they a living selling whiskey in the era of Prohibition, they come across a host of unsavory characters, deepening an age-old family feud.
Character Development/Execution: Rufus and Jolene are colorful characters who leap off the page. Evocative descriptions immerse the readers in the gritty underbelly of 1920s and 1930s North Carolina.
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Plot: Pale Dude is a book about racial disparity, set in the midst of Malcolm X’s era and the countered police brutality. This novel shows how Civil Rights followers were directly affected by the movement. In moments when Rashid struggles with his multicultural background, Wood applies Malcolm X’s teachings from his final revolution of Black nationalism.
Prose/Style: The language is smooth and methodical like a polished conscience. The vocabulary, executed with ease, allows readers to read at the pace of their own anticipating mind, as if their thoughts consume the written passages.
Originality: Centered in the beginning of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, Wood effectively uses this instrumental period to remind readers of Western civilization’s tainted past. The novel’s 1960s narrative demonstrates a time when many were unwilling to depart from ignorant ideals and capital and labor predestined Black communities to inequality.
Character Development/Execution: Wood chooses to tell his story through a third-person intimate perspective of Matthew, a white witness to the unraveling discrimination. The external influences at play mold the character, as he wrestles with his own role in the Civil Rights movement and whether he is or has ever been an opposing participant.
Plot: Moose’s novel is suspenseful and romantic in equal measure. Rachel’s romance with Nate is made only more poignant as she fights to understand how her brother took such a dark turn in his life.
Prose/Style: The reader is pulled into the thick of the story through Moose’s warm, heartfelt prose. Rachel proves to be an engaging narrator.
Originality: The author tackles the realities of an interracial romance with refreshing sensitivity.
Character Development/Execution: Moose’s characters are likable and engaging. There is a definite mysteriousness and possible nefariousness to Dan, Rachel’s brother, which makes the story all the more intriguing.
Blurb: Moose’s evocative novel is a must-read for our times. Newly divorced Rachel has moved back into her deceased parents’ home, finding solace in a newfound friendship with Black veteran Nate and his son Isaiah. But when her ne’er-do-well brother moves in with her, his erratic behavior and dangerous ideas may threaten all Rachel holds dear.
Plot: Lepki takes a standard story about a teenager wanting to escape their reality and suffuses it with new energy. Readers will root for Sydney even as her situation grows ever more precarious. Sydney is the definition of a troubled teen: battling a drinking problem, she swirls in and out of consciousness at house parties. As her family and friends pull away from her, she is pulled into a vortex of depression with little hope of escape.
Prose/Style: The reader grasps the weight of Sydney’s spiral into depression through Lepki’s taut, unflinching prose.
Originality: Given Lepki’s background in psychology, she presents the reader with a richly detailed portrait of someone experiencing and surviving depression and suicidal ideation.
Character Development/Execution: Even at her grimmest, Sydney’s tenacity and her plaintive cries to God are brimming with a fleeting hope. Lepki’s pacing is never hindered; she is a skillful storyteller.
