Joy Reads Books

Tag: netgalley

  • A Disquieting Future: Review of a Thoughtful Short Story Collection

    Book cover of Alison Gadsby's Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive

    I was fortunate to read “Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive”, a collection of deeply visceral short stories by Canadian writer, Alison Gadsby. Futuristic and catastrophic, her writing is inexplicable and draws the reader through the unfamiliar to bear witness to the subtle acts of violence and their memory enacted upon women’s bodies, regardless of time or space.

    The wicked and plain madness of robots and pregnancy

    The collection begins with “The Deal with Roger”, an absorbing and disquieting exploration of a woman’s loneliness and her desperate climb out of a codependent and sometimes violent relationship. Gadsby subtly builds tension and a familiar world around Mirabel, she goes for weekly swims and has an overbearing father but there is something slightly off. The world advances and stays the same.

    Alison Gadsby truly excels at inviting us into the inner lives of women, not at their best or most achieved, but when their sexuality turns them to brutes and their apathy is intent on destroying all that is good around them. Anger and retributive violence are made available to women’s curiosity in “Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive”.

    “Swimming” is a story about the wicked and plain boring madness of early motherhood when time is lost and the ends of your body are connected to an infant or aching for it. Gadsby expertly weaves in the casual misogyny of the narrator’s father-in-law, her body and mind pulled in multiple directions by the men and boys that surround her. The outcome makes as much sense as it does not. It is like looking at something you think you know, but it has fallen into the water and the waves obscure its lines.

    The acts of violence are startling and ethereal, like in “The Going Rate of Grief”, where time is a manipulation if you try hard enough. The futuristic setting she has created, brick by innocuous brick is its own form of violent oppression and judgment. Each story is a weird, intricately woven experience in the unexpected.

    The future where human experience exists between lines of light and code.

    Who should read “Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive”

    Alison Gadsby’s “Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive” is for every woman and female aligned or assigned person who has stood at the edge of a precipice and imagined who they would push into it. It is for the readers who spread fire across the shiny surface of a conference room table when the men won’t let anyone else speak, for fear of being caught in their lies. It is for anyone who likes the weird and wonderful and imagines what it would be like to poke a jellyfish with their brother’s finger.

    There is realistic reference to sex and violence as well as the indignities and injustices of being alive: Cancer, infertility, alcohol and abuse. Dreams lost and found. Loneliness and the ecstatic experience of love. That is the gift of Gadsby’s writing in this collection. It is set in an automated future society with the same petty realities and fears of human experience.

    “Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive” is available for pre-order now, full publication by Guernica Editions in March 2026. To see more from Alison Gadsby, check out her website and follow her on IG!

    Special thanks to Guernica Editions for making the collection available to read on NetGalley!

  • Glowing By the Light of “Frail Little Embers”: A Literary Review of new Short Story Collection

    Glowing By the Light of “Frail Little Embers”: A Literary Review of new Short Story Collection

    fire in a metal barrel surrounded by rocks

    It was a delight to read “Frail Little Embers” by Fjia Callaghan, this collection of short stories is a sweet and tender package of magical realism. There is tea, handmade candy, visits to the sea, folklore both light and dark, and subtle tension woven through each story. Her passion for using myth and folklore “to creat stories that give people hope in times of darkness”, as stated on her bio, is evident in this collection. 

    “Running with Wolves” is a gentle retelling of Red Riding Hood when the roads are closer to the woods and Red has a smartphone. The beauty of a short story is the way in which it can tell us a lifetime of sorrows and joys in one small passage of time and we experience this repeatedly through the collection.

    Callaghan plays around with form, such as in “September Sunsets” and passages of evocative and whispery poetry. It works in this story but I’m unsure how necessary it is within the context of the entire collection. At the same time, the structure of the story is in sharp contrast to the many ways Emily misunderstands everyone around her, from her daughter to the man who  brings her firewood.  

    There are certain lines throughout this short story collection that are devastating in their lyrical beauty, “I curled up in a ball of smoke and shadow and ached for all the things I didn’t understand” (Callaghan, 141) from the Edge of Morning made me pause while reading. This was my favourite in the entire “Frail Little Embers” collection, it showcases Callaghan’s form and the way her writing is like a song.

    At twenty-one stories, I think it’s fairly long for a short story collection. Some stories, like “The Fleeting Ones” read like a character sketch with limited plot but a lot of foreshadowing that could have been fleshed out in a meaningful way. There’s potential to fill in the spaces and if anything, there’s more than one collection here if the time had been spent to find them. This could be coming from a selfish place as I look forward to reading more from Fjia Callaghan.

    Recommended to readers who enjoy whimsy and delight, magical realism, folklore, myth, and magic.

    “Frail Little Embers” was published on 8 April 2025  by Neem Tree Press, thanks to them for making the title available on Netgalley for review!

    Did you know I’ve started publishing my own short fiction? You can find it over at Under the Poplar Tree on Substack. Be sure to subscribe, I publish a new short story every other Thursday.

  • Tensions grow “Into the Fall”: A Review of New Psychological Thriller

    My interest was initially piqued by Tamara L. Miller’s “Into the Fall” because she’s Canadian, and there’s something to be said for supporting local talent but this did not disappoint and is in no way Can-Con filler! Miller’s debut novel is a tightly woven tale that she expertly and finely unravels until the very end. Based out of Ottawa, Miller is the President of Ottawa Independent writers and her website can be found at by Tamara Miller.

    “Into the Fall” is a suspenseful psychological thriller about a family broken apart overnight by the disappearance of husband and father, Matthew in the wilds of northern Ontario. The family has traveled north of Ottawa into a part of the country that is undeniably beautiful, but also incredibly dangerous. We are constantly reminded of this by Officer Rob Boychuk, a veteran of the force and though reserved with our title character, he consistently shows Sarah and her children kindness. I laughed out loud at the name of Boychuk’s partner – Chantal Dubé, Miller couldn’t have possibly used a more French-Canadian name and in a world of books written by Americans, it was like a secret joke for the Canadians (truth be told, I think I know a Boychuk. Canada is small).

    In a former life, Miller was a policy writer and it is evident in the complexity of this story and the background she is able to create for each character. The world she builds for each scene and interaction is complete and well-thought; we feel the growing tension and begrudging respect between Boychuk and Sarah with each subsequent meeting. 

    Entertaining and well written, “Into the Fall” is an elevated thriller, perfect for readers looking for a complex story that draws you in and holds you captive until the end. “Into the Fall” hits bookstores 21 January 2025. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy to Netgalley.