Category: Micro-Reviews

Perrotta’s 8th novel reintroduces us to the eternally ambitious main character from his 1998 novel Election. Tracy Flick is now an assistant principal who’s dying for a promotion. Obstacles stand in her way, but if there’s one thing we know about Tracy, she doesn’t quit. …

The Florida satirist’s latest novel features a Trump-like president codenamed “Mastodon,” a coterie of ultra-wealthy, blue-haired “Potussies” who would go to Hell and back for him, and a Burmese python intent on gobbling up geriatric Republicans. Throw in a malfunctioning presidential tanning bed and a …

Sticking with the southern theme, here’s a collection of tales by Savannah’s best-ever writer. First published in 1955, this collection of gothic tales focuses on the destructive power of social conventions and unquestioned morality. Greed, racism and exploitation are pervasive, and the characters often pay …

No new reviews lately. Life intruded, including a trip to the South, which featured a stop in Savannah, Georgia, at the house where the majority of this 1994 “non-fiction novel” is set. The story centers around the shooting of a male prostitute by a high-society …

This story about a kidnapper struggling to make sense of his world met with a frosty critical reception upon its publication (“a predictable and tiresome piece of fiction,” according to the New York Times). The book lacks the raw emotional honesty of Eggers’ earlier work, …

Eggers’ first novel, published in 2002, is an ambitious literary road trip (with a few airplanes mixed in). Two young Chicagoans, Will and Hand, hatch a plan to travel around the world within seven days, giving away Will’s mini-fortune of $32,000 along the way. Why …

There’s nothing stunningly unique or groundbreaking about this novel, but it’s a great read anyway. The story is ho hum: A virus has spawned hordes of zombies, and a platoon of soldiers has to fight its way through New York to a research facility. This …

This literary thriller from France has the largest possible thematic aspirations. It asks the question, “What would you do if reality itself were destroyed?” Said destruction occurs during a Paris-to-New York flight, when a glitch in the space-time fabric shunts 240 passengers into a whole …

This novel received glowing reviews (including from the more literary outlets) and is lauded by King fans as one of his best—but it’s hard to see the appeal. Jake Epping is a high-school teacher in Maine. He discovers a portal to 1958, and after one …