BOOK REVIEWS

In each annual issue, Portal publishes 6 book reviews—typically 2 of fiction titles, 2 of non-fiction, and 1-2 of poetry (sometimes we even have script!) As our 20-person masthead each review a title published in the last year from an independent Canadian press and author, we also want to share those with you here. We are grateful to past students and to our partner Canadian publishers for this opportunity to promote great Canadian talent to our readers.

 

 

2024 Reviews

Reviews by the Portal 2024 masthead are listed alphabetically by title. Click to read!

A Devil Every Day
John Nyman

Palimpsest Press, 2023
83 pages
ISBN: 9781990293467
$17.95

Reviewed by
Lee Groen

Call of the Void
J.T. Siemens

NeWest Press, 2024
360 pages
ISBN: 9781774390863
$22.95

Reviewed by
Ali Dillon-Cardinal

Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We're Dead
Catherine Graham

Wolsak and Wynn, 2023
170 pages
ISBN: 9781989496633
$20.00

Reviewed by
Tara Wohlleben

A Meditation on
Murder

Susan Juby

HarperCollins, 2024
328 pages
ISBN: 9781443469524
$24.99

Reviewed by
Paige Vandop

Finding Edward
Sheila Murray

Cormorant Books, 2022
330 pages
ISBN: 9781770866263
$24.95

Reviewed by
Casey Tweedy

Send Me in the Woods Alone
Erin Pepler

Invisible Publishing, 2022
208 pages
ISBN: 9781988784892
$20.95

Reviewed by
Tianna Vertigan

All the Shining People
Kathy Friedman

House of Anansi Press, 2022
256 pages
ISBN: 978487010409
$22.99

Reviewed by
Nittu Prasai

The Matryoshka Memoirs
Sasha Colby

ECW Press, 2023
248 pages
ISBN: 9781770417359
$24.99

Reviewed by
Gabrielle E. Josefsson

Someone is Always Watching
Kelley Armstrong

Tundra Books, 2023
349pages
ISBN: 9780735270947
$14.99

Reviewed by
Kiera Bogle

2023 Reviews

All is Well
Katherine Walker

 

Thistledown Press, 2021
229 pages
ISBN: 9781771872218
$24.95

 

Reviewed by
Tammi Carto

Danceland Diary 
Dee Hobsbawn Smith

 

Radiant Press, 2022
232 pages
ISBN: 9781989274828
$22.00

 

Reviewed by
Zeel Desai

We Cry in Silence
Smita Sharma

 

FotoEvidence, 2022
ISBN: 9781732471191
$66.95

 

Reviewed by
Seth Scott

The Boy Who Saw
the Colour of Air 

Abdo Wazen
(Translated by Nouha Homad)

 

BookLand Press, 2022
115 pages
ISBN: 9781772311808
$16.95

 

Reviewed by
Joyce Smith

I Hate the Ivy League:
Riffs and Rants on
Elite Education

Malcolm Gladwell

Pushkin Industries, 2022
5 hours 11 minutes
ASIN: B09X8J8BS6
ISBN: 9781735803265
$13.66

Reviewed by
Jack Corfield

Bystander
Mike Steeves

 

Book*hug Press, 2022
257 pages
ISBN: 9781771667104
$23.00

 

Reviewed by
Rebecca Liu

No Stars in the Sky
Martha Batiz

 

House of Anansi Press, 2022
300 pages
ISBN: 9781487010027
$22.99

 

Reviewed by
Barbara Burgardt

Past Reviews

Reviews by Portal alumni are grouped by genre and arranged by year of publication in descending order.