In Destroy All Monsters, Jeff Jackson’s second novel, self-described as “the last rock novel,” the world of live music is beset by a very real danger: musicians are being murdered onstage.
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Barrelhouse Reviews: White Dancing Elephants, by Chaya Bhuvaneswar
Over the course of sixteen stories, White Dancing Elephants charms its readers into different worlds—with no small help from unexpected twists and robust endings.
Read MoreBarrelhouse Reviews: Starvation Mode by Elissa Washuta
Memoir is meant to allow memories to marinate amongst the broader experiences of the writer’s readers. There’s no shortage of memoirs about eating disorders and coming of age despite difficult odds. Divided into three unequal parts, Starvation Mode is less about disorder and more about creating order from the unruly and otherwise uncontrollable forces that fight to determine what makes a woman.
Read MoreBarrelhouse Reviews: Come As You Are, ed. E. Kristin Anderson
If the 1990s in America cannot be reduced to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and plaid shirts, it's a near thing.
Read MoreBarrelhouse Reviews: After the Bomb by Michael Skau
Two hundred years ago, Lord Byron wrote the poem “Darkness” which described a bleak wasteland (“The bright sun was extinguish’d.”) that was inspired by the super eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. In 2017, Michael Skau authored a poetry collection titled After the Bomb which also features a post-apocalyptic earth.
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