The Stacks
773 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 1-24 of 773
by Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 2020 review. A Vancouver Island bartender becomes a Manhattan Ponzi-scheme wife. Mandel's structural Station Eleven follow-up.
by Claire Keegan
Foster by Claire Keegan 2010 review. A young Irish girl is sent for a summer to relatives in rural County Wexford. Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize winner.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 2021 review. A 1985 Irish coal merchant discovers what's happening at the local Magdalene laundry. Booker Prize shortlist.
by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 1991 review. A Manhattan investment banker's late-1980s consumerism and parallel violence. Canonical contemporary American satirical literary novel.
by Kevin Wilson
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson 2019 review. Stepchildren who burst into flames whenever they get upset. Wilson's third novel and Kindle First / Reese's Book Club pick.
by George Saunders
Tenth of December by George Saunders 2013 review. Ten stories of literary fantasy and American social satire. Story Prize winner and Saunders's structural breakthrough.
by Ling Ma
Severance by Ling Ma 2018 review. A Bible-production manager continues commuting to her New York office across the collapse of the Shen Fever pandemic. Kirkus Prize.
by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2004 review. A seventy-six-year-old Iowa Congregationalist minister writes a letter to his seven-year-old son. Pulitzer Prize winner.
by Mohsin Hamid
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 2017 review. A young Middle Eastern couple escape civil war through magical doors that lead instantly to other cities. Booker Prize shortlist.
by Lauren Groff
Matrix by Lauren Groff 2021 review. The twelfth-century Anglo-Norman poet Marie de France becomes prioress of a destitute English abbey. National Book Award finalist.
by Karen Russell
Orange World by Karen Russell 2019 review. Eight more fabulist literary fantasy stories. Russell's third story collection.
by Akwaeke Emezi
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi 2018 review. A young Nigerian woman is inhabited by Igbo ogbanje spirits who narrate her coming-of-age. Emezi's debut.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell 2013 review. Eight fabulist literary fantasy stories. Russell's second story collection after Swamplandia.
by Hisham Matar
The Return by Hisham Matar 2016 review. Matar returns to Libya in 2012 to investigate the 1990 disappearance of his father, the opposition leader Jaballa Matar. Pulitzer Prize.
My Friends by Hisham Matar 2024 review. Three Libyan exiles meet in 1980s Edinburgh and navigate three decades of London expatriate life. Matar's fourth book.
by Anne Michaels
Held by Anne Michaels 2023 review. Four generations of an English family across the twentieth century, organized as twelve fragmentary chapter-vignettes. Booker Prize shortlist 2024.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 2020 review. Vivek Oji is found dead on his mother's doorstep in 1990s Nigeria. Emezi's second novel.
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell 2011 review. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling family-park collapses after the matriarch's death. Pulitzer Prize finalist.
by Jenny Erpenbeck
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck 2023 review. A 1986 East Berlin affair between a nineteen-year-old student and a fifty-three-year-old novelist. International Booker Prize 2024.
by Samantha Harvey
Orbital by Samantha Harvey 2023 review. Six astronauts spend one day at the International Space Station, orbiting Earth sixteen times. Booker Prize 2024.
by George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin 2000 review. The third Song of Ice and Fire novel and the structural series peak - the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, and the broader War of Five Kings reordering.
by Gary Shteyngart
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart 2021 review. Eight friends quarantine at a Hudson Valley estate across early COVID. Shteyngart's pandemic-era literary commercial novel.
by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell 2011 review. A sixteen-year-old markswoman navigates rural Michigan's Stark River after family catastrophe. Campbell's structural masterwork.
by Douglas Stuart
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart 2022 review. A gay Protestant boy and a Catholic boy fall in love in 1990s sectarian Glasgow. Stuart's Shuggie Bain follow-up.
