The Seaboard Review: May 5th, 2025
Volume 2, Issue 18
May Days!
The first week of May is off to a beautiful start here in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The lawns are greening up, and the buds are on the trees. Soon, the first intrepid ruby-throated Hummingbirds will appear at my feeder, typically by Mother's Day.
This issue is packed with some fiction reviews that were awaiting the end of Poetry Month, such as Wane Ng’s Johnny Delivers, Vanessa C. Hawkins’ suspenseful A Child to Cry Over, and We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine by Denis Ellis Béchard.
As golf season is upon us, we have 101 Fascinating Golf Facts by David McPherson.
Lastly, the time of Covid-19 was definitely a low point for publishers and authors with books to be released/launched during the height of the pandemic. Heidi Von Palleske’s Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack, reviewed here by Emily Weedon, is a fine example. Emily’s own debut novel, Autokrator, suffered the same fate. Both titles are definitely worth a look for fans of literary fiction.
Enjoy the nice weather, wherever you are!
Review of the Week
Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng
Being the firstborn child is never easy; there is a level of expectation which gets thrown upon us, and we tend to take our role in the family very seriously. While this role can be stressful all on its own, imagine being the firstborn child from an immigrant family trying to honour and protect your household while, at the same time, trying to fit into …
Other Reviews
Poetry
I Hate Parties by Jes Battis
Jes Battis’s I Hate Parties is a collection that navigates the strained architecture of social performance, the charged terrain of neurodivergence, and the layered intimacy of queer relationships. With precision, humour, and moments of devastating tenderness, Battis crafts a poetics of resistance to legibility, diagnostic simplification, and the tidy af…
Fiction
A Child to Cry Over by Vanessa C. Hawkins
A Child to Cry Over by New Brunswick author Vanessa C. Hawkins was recently shortlisted for a New Brunswick book award, so it immediately popped up on my radar, especially as it was joined by fellow shortlisters Felt by Mark Blagrave and Nachzehrer by Nelson Keane. (Reference:
We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine by Deni Ellis Béchard
We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine started as a thought experiment on how humans might adapt to being put into individual rooms and given anything they desire, according to the author in an interview with Trevor Corkum at 49th Shelf. This idea grew from the author’s “perception that technology is increasingly shaping our realities to reflect our desir…
Two White Queens and the One Eyed Jack by Heidi von Palleske
Heidi von Palleske’s novel Two White Queens takes the reader to a place somewhere between fairy-tale and film set. And not one of those over-done fairytales, Like Snow White or Cinderella, masticated and pulverized by Disney into something unrecognizable. No, the fairy tales Palleske channels are the B-Side one, like “Snow White and Rose Red” or “King L…
Non-Fiction
“Homing” Explores Sustainability, Motherhood, and Actions to Save the Planet
In Homing: A Quest to Care for Myself and the Earth, Alice Irene Whittaker shares reflections on sustainable living. Some of these reflections relate to personal experience, while other information is based on Whittaker’s discussions with those seeking ways to preserve the health of the planet.
101 Fascinating Golf Facts by David McPherson
This book will not help you improve your golf skills, but it will entertain you while learning some very interesting facts about the beloved sport of Golf. Whether you’re an avid golfer or just enjoy watching it on TV, this book will delight.
Michael Greenstein Reviews:
Saxophonic Circles, Machete Marks: Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin
Three hundred and fifty years ago Louis XIV issued the Code Noir — a series of fifty-nine laws applied to slaves in Caribbean colonies. In her debut fiction collection. Code Noir, Canisia Lubrin writes through these original codes to shed light on the Sun King and give voice to those who were silenced by imperial edicts. The islands’ oral cultures …
Cascades of Ph(r)ases and C(l)auses: Sentence by Mikhail Iossel
At the centre of the cover of Mikhail Iossel’s Sentence, a white, diaphanous curtain billows out of an open window in a breeze and gust of nascent clauses. The curtain shrouds not only a blackened interior, but also mysterious shapes within itself. This rectangular window joins a million others in Henry James’s house of fiction. The curtain’s kinetic f…
Hot Takes: Brief Notes on Books Present & Past
(Note: clicking on the underlined link takes you to the book’s publisher page or Amazon.ca for more information or for purchasing purposes)
Grady Hendrix returns with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls set in a time when unwed mothers were hidden away to have their babies in secret. It’s the summer of 1970 when fifteen-year-old Fern is dropped off at Wellwood House, one of 190 homes for unwed mothers across the United States. As her father drives off leaving her behind without even saying goodbye, Fern is terrified, but she is not alone. She meets twelve other girls staying at the home and they all have the same “problem.” With every move they make watched by Miss Wellwood, life at Wellwood House is not enjoyable. Then one day the bookmobile arrives at the home and the librarian gives Fern a book about witchcraft. The girls begin dabbling in small spells and discover that they have powers, and that witchcraft is real, but they could have never prepared themselves for the events that unfolded after opening that book.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was a slow burn and while I did not enjoy the first half of the novel, the second half was much more entertaining. Even thought this novel is categorized as horror, I did not find it scary, but more of a thriller with a bit of gore thrown in once in a while. In the end I found the story quite juvenile, but it did shed light on some very important history such as the homes for unwed mothers, forced adoption, and the poor treatment of innocent girls who became pregnant most times because they were uneducated and unprotected. If you’re looking for a little bit of witchy gore and a history lesson mixed together, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is the book for you. (Laura Patterson)
Book News
If you would like to have your book event shared in our Monday emails, please contact us at theseaboardreview@gmail.com!
For folks out Toronto way, once a month The Caledonian Pub at 856 College St is home to Drunk Fiction, an irreverent night of readings, where readers, listeners, authors and those who love them can gather, drink and nosh! May 27 is Dennis E Bolen touring his new book amaranthine chevrolet, along with Marianne Miller, Aviva Rubin and Sydney Hegele. Check in at https://emilyweedon.com/drunk-fiction for more info!
Congratulations to Anne Smith-Nochasek for winning our poetry giveaway sponsored by Goose Lane Editions’ icehouse poetry imprint. Enjoy, Anne!
TSR Subscriber Count
We now have 349 365 subscribers! That number includes our paying subscribers (thank you!) as well as our free ones. Being a paid subscriber (for as little as $5/month) allows us to give out honorariums to our team of contributors, which keeps them dedicated to writing reviews of books we think are worthy of your time. Click the button to see all the Substack options.
Other support options:
Ko-fi: you can choose from one-time donations to a $5/month membership
Patreon: memberships from $3/month on up.
Thanks for reading this issue of The Seaboard Review!
James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief
TSR’s Social Media Links
