Tag: Author

When Power Turns Into a Curse

Published on by Stavyah VatsarahLeave a comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: The Convergence
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Author: J M Shaw
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

J M Shaw’s The Convergence, the second book in the Callum Walker series, opens with a man who has saved a world and wants nothing more to do with it. Callum Walker, a human warlock, has retreated to Rutherford following the Winter War, seeking in anonymity the peace that victory had not brought him. Trouble, unfortunately, seems to find him. Soon, a missing community of elves, a desperate queen, and a sinister force sweeping through the magical realm threaten his fragile solitude. Shaw’s second Callum Walker novel is an ambitious fantasy adventure about the tiring business of being everyone’s reluctant savior.

A Hero Who Wants to Be Left Alone

What stands out about Callum is that he’s not all that interested in being celebrated. He has extraordinary powers but lives in a cramped apartment and avoids interfering neighbors. He is also haunted by memories of people he has lost. “I’m too human for your realm, and no amount of magic will change that,” he admits. It’s that loneliness that underlies his awesome powers. He is not completely at home in the magical world, and he is not completely at home in the human world either. Shaw offers his hero more than invincibility: a desperate need to belong.

This makes his relationship with Jobella particularly engaging. The elven druid is concerned for him, and Callum responds with sarcasm and occasional affection. Their conversations are amusingly ordinary for two people communicating across a supernatural divide. Jobella’s magical phone receives unwanted vacation-package offers, a humorous reminder that even seasoned magic practitioners can be confused by modern technology. Beneath the humor lies real concern. Callum may want to be left alone, but his conscience always wins out over his desire for independence.

A Queen Who Desires Power

Queen Esme provides an interesting contrast. Power is something Callum distrusts. Power is something Esme desires. She is increasingly obsessed with the prospect of controlling something greater than herself. Shaw starts with a scene in which she is clambering up a hillside in an impractical royal gown, refusing offers of help and trying the patience of her commander. It’s a nice human introduction to a ruler who doesn’t see herself as anything ordinary. Her obsession with authority gives the novel a political edge: having power and deserving it are two entirely different things.

Commander Joric Agis provides yet another layer of conflict. His loyalty to the monarchy conflicts with his knowledge of past mistakes, and he is caught between obedience and conscience. He’s competent and disciplined but often uncomfortable with the demands placed on him. His exchanges with Callum also provide some welcome humor, especially when unfamiliar human customs clash with his military dignity. Shaw has these two opposing characters raise the question of whether loyalty is still a virtue when the person you are loyal to is difficult to believe in.

ALSO READ | The Ascension: Where Power Meets Character

Magic With a Price

One of the novel’s pleasures is the way it builds its world. Elves, druids, gnomes, magical portals, enchanted stones, and ancient prophecies all inhabit a wondrous and politically troubled world. Magic is powerful, but it is not easy. Healing has its limits. Casting a spell takes energy. Even incredible powers cannot take away all pain. These constraints are the launching pad for Callum’s adventures. The reader understands that having magic does not mean having an answer.

Shaw knows how to make danger personal, too. Callum walks through the wreckage of a devastated elven settlement. The horror is not just the destruction but the lives lost. Later, frightened gnomes come to him for shelter, carrying the sorrow of a community torn apart. The spreading threat is given emotional weight by their desperation. Callum’s impulse to help is admirable, but the novel doesn’t let us forget how much that impulse costs him.

The Problem of Being Good

The pace shifts between tense confrontations, political wheeling and dealing, magical discoveries, and quieter moments of reflection. Shaw does tend to spend a lot of time explaining the mechanics and history of his world, which may slow down readers who want nonstop action. But the detail helps build the scope of the danger and the conflicting interests around Callum. The dialogue is especially enjoyable when his modern impatience runs up against stodgy fantasy conventions. He can deal with supernatural horrors just fine, but he can bitch about the people who make his life miserable.

The emotional weight of The Convergence comes from the difference between Callum’s public persona and his private reality. Some see a mighty warlock who can perform extraordinary deeds. He sees a man who is tired, who has lost friends, who has made mistakes, and who can’t quite outrun his conscience. That difference makes his bravery credible. He doesn’t act because danger excites him; he acts because it would bother him more to ignore another person’s suffering.

Ultimately, The Convergence is a story about the futility of power that cannot create peace. Shaw knows that heroism is seldom comfortable and that goodness is only meaningful when it asks something of us. The spectacle is magical and entertaining, but the meat of the adventure is in its quieter moral struggles. Callum Walker has powers beyond the understanding of ordinary people, but his most familiar burden is painfully well known. He knows he could walk away but finds he cannot.

DO READ | She Felt Like ‘An Alien Dropped Onto This Planet Without a Script’

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book The Convergence and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

The Perfect Life That Never Was

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BOOK REVIEW

Book: Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies
Genre: Dark Psychological Fiction
Author: Jennifer Anne Gordon
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

Jennifer Anne Gordon’s Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies contains an uncomfortable understanding about loneliness: sometimes pretending to have a better life feels easier than living the one you have. Rebecca “Becca” Gauthier, a forty-one-year-old social worker, is grieving the loss of her son, Gabe, and the end of her marriage. Her escape is Mommy Wine Time, a private Facebook group of women whose expensive habits and carefully arranged meals seem to have immunized them from the normal misery of life. Becca knows a lot of it is ludicrous. She sees. She can’t help it. Gordon turns this innocuous obsession into a dark, razor-sharp study of grief and the dangerous pleasure of becoming someone else.

A Life Behind the Curtain

Becca is not an easy character to like, which is what makes her interesting. She is pleasant at work, fatigued at home, preoccupied with money, and has the ability to make fun of nearly everyone around her, including herself. Early on, she wonders how forty-four women can create “so much beautiful nothing”—a wonderfully sharp description of the online world she secretly loves. The contradiction is huge: Becca hates the privilege on display but covets the security it seems to promise. Her sarcasm is funny until the pain that lies underneath seems so apparent.

Gordon finds that pain does not make Becca a helpless victim. Gabe’s death is always there, in ordinary moments, in a picture on her phone, in words that unexpectedly conjure memories of drowning. Becca’s a social worker who can handle the tough cases but can’t get through her own evenings without wine and the comforting fiction of her online identity. She admits that “Being Becca is hard,” and it is painfully simple. It explains why playing someone else has become more than entertainment.

Women Who Made the Pictures Perfect

Mommy Wine Time is one of the novel’s strongest creations because Gordon knows the particular intimacy of online communities. Its members trade remarks about food, beauty, marriage, and domestic frustrations, often cloaking cruelty in humor. Perfectly photographed breakfasts become a competition, and apparently innocent conversations reveal class prejudice and resentment. Becca belongs to this theater, in the person of Lucy Westenra, the identity she has fashioned for herself. The gag is that she sees through everyone else’s performance but becomes more and more reliant on her own.

Her friendship with Lynn is a revealing contrast. Both women are social workers, know what professional burnout is, and have a history before Becca’s online existence. Their conversations are deliciously messy, full of jokes and annoyance and affection and uncomfortable truths. Lynn realizes that Mommy Wine Time is not just a distraction but a desire to live a different life. The distinction between being surrounded by people and being known is glaringly obvious when Becca says, “The group doesn’t know my real circumstances.”

ALSO READ | The Making of a Fae Queen

When Friendship Turns Into Something Else

As Becca’s online relationships start to take on emotional significance, the book becomes darker and darker, her real life not quite matching up. Gordon is so effective at showing how addictive attention can be, especially when you’ve been invisible for years. An unexpected sign of interest can turn an otherwise miserable evening. Becca doesn’t want just admiration; she wants to feel like she’s important. That need makes her sympathetic even as her choices grow more and more indefensible.

The writing is deliberately restless, flitting between dark humor, grief, social commentary, and Becca’s anxious inner monologue. References to television, horror films, fast food, and social media give her narration a familiar contemporary voice. The endless digressions might exhaust some readers, but they also expose a mind desperate to evade silence. Gordon usually notices mundane details. Even a chocolate shake or an unopened student loan bill can be a reminder of something Becca is not ready to face.

The Cost of Make-Believe

What makes Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies compelling is its unwillingness to present loneliness as something easily fixed by friendship or self-awareness. Becca knows her online life is unhealthy, but knowing doesn’t make leaving it any easier. Gordon also doesn’t make the supposed perfect women into objects of ridicule. Underneath the privilege and the performance lie familiar insecurities and desires for control. The social satire of the novel is at its best in its demonstration of how easily people confuse appearances with happiness.

Ultimately, Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies is a disturbing portrait of what happens when escape becomes more real than reality. Gordon writes about grief without making it respectable and about female friendship without pretending women are always kind to each other. Her smartest observation is that deception is not always motivated by a desire to hurt someone. It may begin with a desire to be loved or even just noticed. And occasionally, the best lie we tell ourselves is that we are being truthful.

DO READ | The Jungle Comes Alive

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

The Past Would Not Rest in Peace

Published on by Stavyah Vatsarah1 Comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: Unveiled
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Author: T K Bush
Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

Unveiled opens with a woman whose ordinary life revolves around a hole in her memory. Cath Lab manager Tessa Brooks is a wife and mother whose apparent stability is shattered by increasingly vivid flashbacks of an accident she can’t quite remember. Then, out of the blue, a man from her past, Dominic Reynolds, appears, and what Tessa thought she had safely buried starts to raise its ugly head. The premise allows the novel to leap between domestic drama, romance, medical fiction, and psychological suspense without immediately giving away which of Tessa’s fears are real. Fundamentally, it poses a tough question: if memory has been your shield against the past, is remembering always positive?

When Memory Calls

The novel works best when it contrasts Tessa’s professional competence with her private uncertainty. From the very first scene in the Cath Lab, a woman comfortable in a high-pressure world watches a team of doctors and nurses race the clock to get blood pumping to a patient’s heart. But the crisis yanks Tessa out of the moment, conjuring images of “crushed metal, blood, and smoke.” It is this contrast that underlies her characterization: she can deal with other people’s emergencies, but not with what her mind chooses to show her. And to herself, “Not now. Stay here” is a shorthand version of that struggle.

Dominic makes those broken memories human. Tessa immediately knows him as someone she knew before the accident, but recognition is not certainty. Her memories are of attraction and intimacy but also of suspicion, especially the memories of Dominic disappearing for mysterious periods. His return creates tension, not immediate physical danger. Neither Tessa nor the reader has the full history to interpret him. When she asks, “Where has he been?”, the question is bigger than Dominic; it is already full of everything that has been missing from her story.

ALSO READ | ‘Joy and Blessing From Creating Should First Be for Yourself’

Almost Not a Refuge Home

The domestic scenes are a stark contrast to this uncertainty. Tessa’s life revolves around Michael and her son, Isaac. Dominic is the life she can never quite grasp. It’s the familiar territory of the Brooks house, complete with an overcooked dinner, Isaac in trouble for applesauce, and Michael offering to put the kid to bed. And that’s why the ordinariness is so important: it gives Tessa something real to lose. Here, the suspense is not merely about what has happened but about what that question might mean for the present.

Tessa’s longtime friend, Nicole, provides the protagonist with another source of stability. Nicole’s been Tessa’s friend since long before most of her current life came into being, and she’s a useful counterpoint to the woman Tessa was and the woman she’s become. Nicole basically preaches to her to trust her instincts early on, reminding her that her “gut feelings aren’t usually wrong.” It’s a simple comment, but it gains more resonance in a novel where memory itself is unreliable. Tessa is continually given the choice between believing the evidence, others, or herself.

Medicine & Mysteries

Unveiled has a different medical history. Cardiac procedures, hospital routines, patient care, and workplace relationships are not set dressing for Tessa; they are part of her daily world. The emergency at the start, with the guidewire, the balloon, the blocked artery, and the rapidly changing vital signs, gives the story professional specificity right away. It’s also thematically engaging: Tessa works in a field that deals in finding dangerous blockages, but her own past has a blockage she can’t clear. The connection is always easy to follow, but it gives the setting a purpose beyond atmosphere.

The novel builds suspense not so much through swift action as through accumulation. Tessa has no idea which details matter. An old file, a strange headache, an uncomfortable feeling, a half-remembered image, or a familiar face can all be key things. Her flashbacks, then, are pieces rather than convenient explanations. It leaves the narrative with a certain deliberate restlessness at times, as Tessa questions what she remembers and why. The uncertainty should make it a particularly satisfying read for anyone who likes mysteries built on the bedrock of unreliable memory.

What Lies Beneath

Stylistically, Unveiled is intended to be accessible and emotionally immediate. We often see her inner thoughts, so the reader feels her suspicion, guilt, attraction, fear, and confusion almost as soon as she does. The writing is brilliant in the mundane and the jarring, especially when something Tessa recalls suddenly punctuates hospital routines or family moments. The novel doesn’t distance its protagonist from the emotional; it immerses readers in her uncertainty.

But Unveiled is really about more than solving the mystery of an accident. It is a meditation on how vital memory is to identity and whether a comfortable present can survive the truths we bury. So Tessa’s quest is as much inward as outward: to figure out what happened and who she was then. Hence, the title rings true. In Unveiled, the scariest thing behind the veil may not be the past itself, but what happens when someone finally pulls it back.

DO READ | ‘My First Novel Took Twenty Years and Two Months to Write’

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book Unveiled and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

Midlife Magic Will Not Be Invisible

Published on by Stavyah VatsarahLeave a comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: Golem for Broke
Genre: Magical Midlife Urban Fantasy
Author: Deborah Wilde
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

Deborah Wilde’s Golem for Broke has a wonderfully wicked proposition: what if perimenopause came with not only hot flashes and brain fog but also magic? Tovah Silver is a fixer in her forties for Mad Queens Inc., in a Vancouver where magic skills, supernatural red tape, and everyday life all happily coexist. Her powers manifest as hot flashes, which is a silly idea until you find yourself in a situation where a well-timed wave of heat is just what you need. Wilde takes the joke without diminishing Tovah, using an unconventional heroine to explore power, aging, friendship, and the experience of being underestimated. The result is urban fantasy with lots of magical trouble, but much of its personality comes from women who refuse to quietly disappear into middle age.

Hot Flashes Turn Hotter

Tovah introduces herself immediately, with a narrative voice that’s sarcastic, self-deprecating, and seemingly incapable of wasting a good joke. The first line, “No woman woke up with a song in her heart and the words ‘What a great day for a mammogram!’ on her lips,” tells you exactly what kind of book this will be. Wilde continually contrasts the mundane with the magical, letting mammograms and wet boots, work frustrations, and the indignities of aging exist in the same universe as golems and magical crimes. Even when Tovah is in genuinely uncomfortable circumstances, her observations are still sharply comic. That humor makes her less a carefully constructed fantasy heroine and more a woman determined to meet absurdity with greater absurdity.

But the perimenopausal magic joke has a more serious idea behind it. Tovah points out that the powers of the Mad Queens are often treated as if they are symptoms of conditions the women are already suffering from, which she dryly calls “lady troubles.” Wilde turns that dismissal into a nice metaphor for how the experiences of middle-aged women can be trivialized or overlooked. Tovah herself notes the link between physical transformation and identity, writing that perimenopause can alter “how you experienced the world, the fucks you had left to give.” It’s funny, deliberately blunt language, but there is surprisingly perceptive thought behind it.

Long Live the Crazy Queens

Tovah is important, but what’s more important is the friendship at the core of Mad Queens Inc. Nisha, Margot, Su-Jin, and Tovah all have their own personalities and skills, but the way they work together makes the group feel lived in rather than cobbled together to give the protagonist a supporting cast. They tease, argue, eat, solve problems pragmatically, and instinctively care for each other in their conversations. Tovah at one point describes the feeling of being with the right people as if she “could finally do anything as long as I had the right team by my side.” This captures the emotional architecture of the novel without Wilde needing to sentimentalize the friendships.

The Mad Queens also flesh out the title and larger concept of the book. Their powers show up later than society expects. This is unusual in a magical culture where powers tend to manifest much earlier in life; middle age is not a last-ditch effort to reclaim youth for Wilde, but rather these women come to their new circumstances with experience, professional skills, complex histories, and hard-won confidence. Even their office reflects that mix of age and reinvention, described through “history, stubborn survival, and organized chaos.” In that sense, Golem for Broke does not view middle age as an epilogue but as another possible beginning.

ALSO READ | After a Lifetime of Facts, He Chose Fiction

Magic With Rules and Red Tape

Wilde’s Vancouver is fun because magic hasn’t replaced bureaucracy or social hierarchy: it has only made them more complicated. The wealthy use golems, the police investigate magical crimes, protective wards are security, and supernatural powers are governed by laws and restrictions. Tovah’s work thus occupies a fascinating middle ground between formal authority and those who need problems solved outside of the usual channels. She defends Mad Queens Inc. as a business that serves members of the magical community whom official institutions might otherwise overlook. So the supernatural world appears woven into the fabric of everyday civic life rather than behind a curtain that is wholly other.

The golems are especially good worldbuilding elements because Wilde gives rules for their creation and composition. Tovah sees differences in the way they’re built, moved, in the clay, and in the inside. The people who make them know things, not some vague, unlimited power. The book also plays with familiar golem lore rather than simply reproducing it. Tovah dismisses the simple version of the legend by saying she could tattoo “emet” on a potato, and it still wouldn’t do her laundry. It’s a good example of Wilde using humor to deliver exposition without making the reader feel trapped in a supernatural instruction manual.

Queens Who Need to Prove Something

The prose is quick, fueled by Tovah’s commentary and Wilde’s love of banter. The characters also spar verbally almost as readily as they do with the magical problems, and the exchanges often reveal personality while keeping the story buoyant. Serious fantasy fans might think the jokes are relentless, but clearly Golem for Broke is not trying to be restrained. Its humor is part of its worldview, especially its refusal to treat older women as tragic, invisible, or humorless characters. Tovah can be vulnerable without losing the edge that makes her such a compelling narrator.

Beneath the golems, magical regulations, mysteries, and wisecracks is a story about who gets to be taken seriously and what happens when people refuse to play their allotted roles. Wilde grants middle-aged women the powers, friendships, messy lives, appetites, and adventures traditionally saved for younger protagonists in fantasy. Critically, before the heroines get to be formidable, the novel doesn’t make them become younger versions of themselves. Golem for Broke finds its magic in exactly the stage of life others might underestimate. These Mad Queens aren’t waiting to take back their crowns; they’ve already decided they belong on their heads.

DO READ | From Comedy Sketches to Creative Pursuits

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book Golem for Broke and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

‘If You Want to Be a Writer, You Need to Love to Write’

Published on by B SudharsanLeave a comment

INTERVIEW

Beth Mims may have spent over 40 years in the field of education, but words have been a part of her life for much longer. Mims, who lives in north Florida, is not only a writer but also a teacher, gardener, wife, mother, and grandmother. Much of her inspiration comes from faith, family, and the natural world around her. Her work can be found in The Time of Singing, Cantos, The Upper Room, and Christiandevotions.us. She received a Foundations Award at the 2026 Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. Her first book, Wrapped in Grace, which was released in February 2026, is a collection of devotionals and poetry on the grace she sees in the everyday. B Sudharsan, founding editor-in-chief of Literary Harbinger, recently interviewed her via email. The interview, which you can read below, has been lightly edited for flow.

SPECIAL TO LITERARY HARBINGER

B Sudharsan: You have been writing for much of your life. Where did it all begin?

Beth Mims: I have been writing since I was a child. I still have copies of poems and stories that I wrote when I was in elementary school. These are not things I share, but I have them. When I was in high school, I helped publish a church paper, and I did a lot of the writing that was printed in the paper. After that, my writing became more private and lived in my journals.While teaching school, I wrote stories and rhymes for my classes, but I didn’t attach my name to them. They just became a part of my curriculum. I also wrote lyrics for songs at church, but I kept them anonymous. 

‘Being an Author Entails a Lot More Than Writing’

B Sudharsan: Tell us about your published works and how they came into being. What can readers expect from your latest book?

Beth Mims: I have published several poems in literary journals such as The Time of Singing and Cantos. I began submitting these after meeting and talking with some editors who looked at my work and encouraged me to submit it. I have also published devotions on Christiandevotions.us and in The Upper Room magazine. My first book is Wrapped in Grace, a book of devotions that was released in February 2026. It is a compilation of sixty-five devotions along with related poetry that express how God’s grace is evident in every aspect of our lives. My latest book, which will be released in the next couple of months, is a children’s book, How Christmas Came: A Child’s Story of Jesus’ Birth. This is a rhyming book that tells about Jesus’ birth and life through the eyes of a child. 

B Sudharsan: With your writing now reaching a wider audience, was becoming an author something you had consciously set out to do?

Beth Mims: Not really. I wanted to write, but being an author entails a lot more than writing. I’m still learning that. The longer you write, the more you realize that writing demands to be read. If it is to be read, it must be published. If it is published, it must be marketed so that people know that the writing exists to be read. It becomes a little like the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, written by Laura Numeroff. One thing leads to another, and a simple desire to write turns into authorship (if you are fortunate). I was fortunate—I call it blessed.

‘I Read Anything That Richard Paul Evans Writes’

B Sudharsan: As you have grown into authorship, which writers have inspired you along the way?

Beth Mims: Jan Karon is a favorite author. Her stories center around family and community life. The stories seem simple, but her character development is so rich. I always feel like the characters have become my friends by the time I finish one of her books. I read anything that Richard Paul Evans writes. His stories dig deep into my heart and leave me thinking about much more than the story that was written. I always wonder how he manages to do that. C S Lewis is a classic, but he cannot be forgotten. I read him over and over again, each time gaining something new.

B Sudharsan: Turning to your own writing process, do you follow a fixed routine, or do you write whenever time and inspiration allow?

Beth Mims: I generally write in the morning, but that doesn’t always work. Right now, it is after seven at night, and I am at the computer because it has been a busy day. I wish I could follow a fixed schedule, but I am not an island. There are always interruptions. Perhaps it says something about me that I don’t stick to a schedule, but I am committed to being available to my people. People take time.

ALSO READ | ‘I Think Writing a Novel Is a Little Like Archery’

‘I Seldom Go Anywhere Without a Pen and Tablet’

B Sudharsan: You mention being available to “your people.” How do you balance writing with those responsibilities, and what do you enjoy doing when you step away from the page?

Beth Mims: I have difficulty with this. Writing demands my full attention, but my other responsibilities do as well. I try to carve out a few hours each morning, and many days I am successful. When I am not, I resort to writing in my notebooks and on the backs of napkins and in my phone’s notes app. I seldom go anywhere without a pen and tablet. I enjoy gardening and enticing the hummingbirds to make my garden their favorite stopping place. I can watch them from my office window. I grew up fishing with my family, and when I was a child I wasn’t always an active participant. I read my books in the bow of the boat and complained a lot. Now, though, I love it when my husband and I can spend a few hours on the river or bay. He loves fly fishing, but I enjoy using a reel and rod with bait. We also enjoy riding through the woods and stopping at little creeks to fish. I love spending time with our grandchildren. We have five, and they are the light of my life. Each one is unique and such a joy. They keep me busy.

B Sudharsan: Family and place clearly play an important role in your life. Where do you currently live, and what has your professional journey in education looked like?

Beth Mims: I live in north Florida. I have a degree in Elementary Education and Early Childhood and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. I am retired from a forty-plus-year career in education. I loved my job, all of it. I taught, I was a principal, I was a trainer and curriculum writer, and I was a district-level administrator. If you add all of that up, you can probably come pretty close to my age.\

‘Hurts Would Be Healed, Familes Restored, Evil Overcome’

B Sudharsan: After such a long career in education and your own journey toward publication, what would you tell budding authors who become discouraged when their work does not perform as well as they hoped?

Beth Mims: If you want to be a writer, you need to love to write. Write because you love it, not because you are trying to reach a certain number of sales. Write because you have something to say and say it. The more you write, the better writer you will become if you are working on your craft. Then learn the trade. Part (a big part) of being an author is marketing. 

B Sudharsan: Finally, your faith runs throughout both your life and your writing. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

Beth Mims: Everyone would know the grace of Jesus Christ. They would know His love and His forgiveness. Hurts would be healed. Families would be restored. Evil would be overcome.

DO READ | From Monsters to Falling Worlds

Write because you love it, not because you are trying to reach a certain number of sales. Write because you have something to say and say it. The more you write, the better writer you will become if you are working on your craft. Then learn the trade. Part (a big part) of being an author is marketing. 

~ BETH MIMS

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of Wrapped in Grace, and grab yourself a copy right away!

Raising Hell While Death’s at the Door

Published on by Stavyah VatsarahLeave a comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: DeathCon: A Zombie Story
Genre: Supernatural Zombie Horror
Author: Nzondi
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

Nzondi’s DeathCon gives a quick twist to the familiar zombie story: its protagonist, Cozimel “Cozy” Coleman, is a necromancer for whom raising the dead is less an unspeakable horror than a job. Cozy and her friends run the Scream Teens, bringing back the dead so families can work out the practicalities of unfinished business. “We raised zombies so mourners could say goodbye one last time,” Cozy says, as if she were describing a normal service industry. This normalizing of necromancy sets up one of the most striking ideas in the novel: death can be scary, but in Cozy’s world it can also be commercial and emotional and bizarrely routine. Nzondi uses this unusual premise and blends zombie horror, supernatural fantasy, comedy, friendship, and adventure.

When Horror Is Not Pretend

That premise is all the more playful given the setting, as most of the early action takes place on board the Sea Queen during DeathCon 2025, a horror-themed cruise with costumes, music, performances, and people eager to be frightened. The same problem confronts Cozy and the reader: how to distinguish entertainment from danger as strange incidents start intruding upon the festivities. After witnessing a woman acting alarmingly, Cozy begins to wonder whether the ship has just hired her “to scare people.” Given the setting, with zombie nuns, werewolves, grim reapers, and other costumed characters, the confusion is totally believable. So Nzondi turns the very setting of the convention into a source of suspense.

That tension works particularly well because DeathCon isn’t simply relying on darkness to generate horror. The characters are surrounded by bright lights, loud music, flamboyant costumes, dancing, jokes, and references to pop culture, all against an increasingly uneasy atmosphere. Even the bar called Lipstick Zombies looks like a horror carnival with costumed patrons and zombie-themed staff. The contrast makes it easy to dismiss anything unusual as part of the spectacle, creating a natural build-up of unease. In the novel, uncertainty gradually leaks into a world where everyone is expecting scary things to be fake.

Cozy Coleman Raises the Ante

The novel’s best asset is Cozy herself, and her first-person narration gives DeathCon a loud, irreverent personality. She’s impulsive, funny, combative, compassionate, and self-aware enough to know she’s reckless, though she doesn’t always rein it in. Her introduction captures that combination perfectly: “Some girls talked too much, some stole boyfriends, but my vice was raising the dead.” The joke does more than set the tone; it shows how deeply Cozy considers the extraordinary ordinary. Even the explanatory sections are lively, driven by her colloquial narration, pop-culture references, jokes, and sudden observations.

But there is also an emotional counterpoint to Cozy’s bravado. Her humor and attitude coexist with moments of vulnerability, while her interactions with those around her show the importance of real human connection. Her friendships, in particular, give the story warmth without taking away from its irreverent energy. Cozy is also compassionate, unafraid to help others without expecting acclaim. These moments keep her from being just another wise-cracking supernatural heroine.

ALSO READ | Writing Beyond Retirement

Rewriting the Rules of the Undead

The worldbuilding is just as distinctive, as Nzondi deliberately subverts the traditional zombie mythos. Cozy rejects the cinematic notion of zombies smashing their way out of coffins and hunting living people outright, saying that “zombies weren’t savage killers.” Instead, the novel lays out rules for necromancy, protective circles, rituals, substances, spiritual forces, and the obligations of temporarily bringing the dead into contact with the living. These explanations provide an internal logic for its supernatural world, rather than treating magic as a solution without limits. The result is a version of the undead that feels familiar enough to recognize but different enough to remain interesting.

The mythology is also placed next to a very modern universe of social media, music, movies, video games, celebrity culture, and gadgets. References to African, Egyptian, Hawaiian, and other cultures and spirituality help build the supernatural framework. Cozy casually talks about everything from horror movies to cell phones. The combination fits a protagonist who herself lives in several overlapping worlds: ancient practices and modern adolescence, extraordinary experiences and ordinary insecurities, and death rituals and commercial entertainment. The novel therefore avoids depicting necromancy as something that exists only in a mysterious past. Instead, Nzondi invites readers to consider what happens when an ancient supernatural practice becomes a recognizable modern service.

Blood, Banter, Beating Heart

Stylistically, DeathCon favors speed over restraint. Conversations ricochet between jokes and moments of unease, and Cozy’s interior narration ensures scenes rarely stay solemn for long. Those who like energetic narrators will probably enjoy the immediacy, but if you like understated horror, you may find the slang and pop-culture references heavy. But the excess is largely appropriate for the environment because DeathCon itself is intentionally extravagant. Cozy talks to the world at the same volume she lives in it.

But beneath all that noise, the novel keeps coming back to broader questions of connection, identity, responsibility, and the uneasy boundary between life and death. Its more interesting concern is therefore not just the existence of the undead, but how people respond to a world in which death does not necessarily mark the end of human interaction. Cozy is a particularly effective protagonist because her unusual profession exists alongside recognizably ordinary emotions and relationships. Nzondi crams these concerns into an unapologetically energetic mix of zombie horror, supernatural fantasy, humor, and adventure. DeathCon has plenty of blood in its veins, but what breathes life into the story is the discernible heart beating underneath.

DO READ | Stories Among the Stars

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book DeathCon and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

‘My First Novel Took Twenty Years and Two Months to Write’

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INTERVIEW

Jennifer Anne Gordon is an award-winning author and podcast host. Her debut novel Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent won the Kindle Book Award for Best Horror/Suspense in 2020 as well as Best Horror Novel of the Year from the Authors on The Air Global Radio Network. Her novel Pretty/Ugly won the Helicon Award for Best Horror 2022 and the Kindle Book Award for Best Novel of the Year 2022 (Reader’s Choice). Her novelette The Japanese Box won the Lit Nastie Award for Best Short Story (2023), and her essay ‘Navy Blue Dickies’ (Glassworks) is a Best of the Net nominee (2025). Her mainstream debut, a book club thriller, Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies, was released September 8, 2026, by Podium Publishing. Her essays have appeared in Miniskirt Magazine, Tangled Locks Journal, Lumina, Flash Glass, Persephone Literary Magazine, Horror Tree, and The Nerd Daily. They are also included in the collections Such a Loss, Not Ghosts, But Spirits (Volume V) and Letting Grief Speak: Writing Portals for Life After Loss. Gordon, who is also the creator and co-host of the popular comedic literary podcast Vox Vomitus and is a co-host of House of Mystery on NBC Radio, was interviewed by B Sudharsan, Founding Editor-in-Chief, Literary Harbinger, via email recently. You can read the interview, slightly edited for flow, below.

HARBINGER EXCLUSIVE

B Sudharsan: You seem to have been drawn to storytelling from a very young age. What are your earliest memories of writing, and how has your writing evolved since then?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I think like most writers, I feel like I have always been writing something. My first writing memory was in third grade when I got a short “prayer for a cat” published in our little school newspaper. From there I wrote some Nightmare on Elm Street fan fiction in sixth grade—this was very embarrassing and honestly pretty gross. In seventh grade I would eat lunch in my English teacher’s classroom and write short stories. I have dabbled in poetry over the years, a short foray into trying to write comics and graphic novels, and now I mainly write personal essays and novels…and the occasional short story.

‘I Start Writing and See Where It Takes Me’

B Sudharsan: How do your novels usually come into being, and what can you tell us about your latest book?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: All of my published novels have come out in the same manner, when the story in my head gets too big and it needs to come out. I start writing and see where it takes me. I joke that my first novel, Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent, took 20 years and 2 months to write… 20 years of the story living in my head and eventually two months to write the first draft of the novel. My latest novel is a book club thriller called Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies. It is a story about a woman who is still processing the grief of losing her son 11 years ago, and the only comfort she finds is in drinking cheap wine and pretending to be someone else online. She gets involved with a group of women on the internet and quickly gets in over her head with their cult-like connection. It’s a story of female friendship, toxic internet culture, and trauma.

B Sudharsan: Since you tend to start writing and see where the story takes you, how much do you know about your characters and plot before you begin?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I usually have a vibe or a rough concept. I let that simmer in my head for a while when I am trying to figure out who the story is about. To me the character(s) are truly the most important aspect of any story, so once I figure out who they are, then I start writing. Usually this involves me discovering things about the character along the way. I am a pantser, so I don’t have an outline to follow. Mostly I have scenes or flashes of scenes that I know need to happen, and then I try to figure out how to link those together and have it make sense.

‘I’ll Keep the Same Schedule for an Entire Project’

B Sudharsan: Which authors have had the strongest influence on you as a reader and writer, and what do you particularly admire about their work?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I have too many to mention, and depending on my mood, they change. But the authors that have been my favorites as long as I can remember are Shirley Jackson, Anne Sexton, Josh Malerman, Sarah Langdon, Clay Mcleoud Chapman, Jennifer MacMahon, Stephen Graham Jones, May Cobb, Megan Collins, Rachel Harrison…the list goes on and on. They all inspire me in different ways. May, Rachel, and Megan are masters of twists and turns. I burn through their books so fast, and they are easily some of the most fun I ever have while reading. Josh, Jennifer, Sarah, Stephen, and Clay… They are masters of terrifying me while also breaking my heart.

B Sudharsan: Does your writing routine change from one project to another, or do you tend to follow a fixed schedule?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I don’t really have a fixed schedule, but I will usually keep the same schedule for an entire project. So, if I start to write a book during the afternoons, then I stick to afternoons for the duration of the project. It’s where my muse can find me for that specific book. Maybe it’s superstitious; maybe it’s true. It’s hard to say.

ALSO READ | After a Lifetime of Facts, He Chose Fiction

‘I Am Still a Very Avid Reader’

B Sudharsan: Was becoming a full-time writer something you had consciously planned, or did circumstances lead you towards it?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: When I sat down to write my first novel, I didn’t think I would become a “full-time writer” so quickly, but then the pandemic lockdown happened, and I lost my job, and suddenly I had all the time in the world to try and make this happen. It had been something that I had always dreamed of doing, but dreaming it and being it are very different things.

B Sudharsan: What other work and interests occupy your time?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I am a ballroom dance instructor part-time; I also love photography and travel. I host a literary podcast, and I am still a very avid reader. My husband (Roman Sirotin) and I are also painters, and we co-paint abstract mixed media paintings.

B Sudharsan: You mentioned that you can be a little superstitious about your projects. Without giving away too much, what can you tell us about what you are currently working on?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I try not to talk too much about current projects; again, I am superstitious…but I will say that it is very slightly autobiographical, except in the work in progress there are a lot more murders than in my real life. Haha.

‘Most of My Days Revolve Around My Dog’

B Sudharsan: To writers who become discouraged when their work does not perform as well as they hoped, what would you say?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I would say they should try to remember why they started writing in the first place. To remember the joy in it. I know how hard this is, and it’s all easier said than done. So, when this doesn’t work, I encourage writers to try writing something completely new, maybe try a new genre or try writing flash. Even using writing prompts or taking a class or workshop has helped me in the past.

B Sudharsan: If you could change one thing about the world, what would you most want to eliminate?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: If there was a way to eliminate cruelty, that would be the big one. I think that would cover most of the things I wish were different in this world.

B Sudharsan: Away from writing and your other creative pursuits, what does an ordinary day in your life tend to revolve around?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: I have a dog, so truthfully most of my days revolve around him, his snacks, his walks, and his playtime.

B Sudharsan: Last but not least, where can readers who would like to follow your work and read more of your personal essays find you?

Jennifer Anne Gordon: If anyone wants to know more about me or my work and subscribe to my Substack (where I share personal essays), all of that information can be found on my website at http://www.JenniferAnneGordon.com.

DO READ | Writing Beyond Retirement

I would say they (discouraged writers) should try to remember why they started writing in the first place. To remember the joy in it. I know how hard this is, and it’s all easier said than done. So, when this doesn’t work, I encourage writers to try writing something completely new, maybe try a new genre or try writing flash. Even using writing prompts or taking a class or workshop has helped me in the past.

~ JENNIFER ANNE GORDON

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of Perfect Wives, Perfect Lies, and grab yourself a copy right away!

Old-School Sleuth, New-School Crime

Published on by Stavyah VatsarahLeave a comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: :05 Seconds to Die
Genre: Crime Thriller
Author: Bob Brill
Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

In :05 Seconds to Die (2025)—A crime novel by Bob Brill, former reporter and private investigator Casey Order meets actress Ginger Queen, then is pulled into a criminal plot concerning the 2028 Summer Games. The novel has 25 chapters and moves rapidly from a meeting in Hollywood to a much wider world involving organized crime, law enforcement, technology, and international links. The premise is deliberately inflated: Ginger warns Casey that powerful criminal networks might be teaming up and using ‘high-tech gadgetry to steal from the summer games.’

A Detective Who Knows He’s In Trouble

Much of the personality of the novel comes from Casey’s voice as narrator. He knows the situation is dangerous, but Brill keeps letting humor break the tension. Faced with the enormity of the crime he intends, Casey lets himself dream of becoming famous enough to take over from Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street before admitting, ‘Maybe, just maybe, I might end up dead. Might make me a legend.’ The mixture of fear and bravado sets the scene for the slightly overblown world the novel wants to inhabit.

Humor also comes through in smaller exchanges. Casey’s assistant, Trixie, is comfortable enough to say ‘You look like shit’ when his behavior gets noticeably odd. Such dialog prevents the characters from becoming mere plot devices in a crime story. Casey may be up against dangerous folks, but his normal relationships provide comic moments of normalcy in between the threats.

A Private Eye Walks Into Cyberspace

Brill pits a quaint, personal-eye persona against a decidedly modern technological menace. Casey talks like someone who has read a lot of detective fiction and has watched a lot of old movies, but the crime he is investigating involves digital systems, hacking, burner phones, and the vulnerabilities of cashless transactions. The scheme also covers common purchases, tickets, sellers, financial data, and digital money. That contrast between Casey’s throwback persona and the technological scale of the danger gives the novel an unusual flavor.

It also refuses to remain geographically small. What appears to be out of Casey’s professional sphere of expertise is in fact a case that involves many criminal organizations and official agencies. Even Casey realizes the disproportion of himself to what he has stumbled upon: ‘This was something bigger than my little world. ‘ Brill exploits that imbalance to keep the suspense alive because Casey is never presented as an invulnerable mastermind who can solve everything himself.

ALSO READ | ‘Don’t Write for Other People’

Crime With a Broad Grin

The novel’s style is playfully knowing. Film references, cultural observations, jokes, food, travel details, and Casey’s running commentary—all sit alongside serious danger. ‘No, old boy, I’ve got a leading role in this one,’ he tells a postman once, when he is laughed at for his conspicuous clothes. That sentence almost sums up Casey’s whole personality: he behaves as if he knows he’s in an adventure.

This will especially appeal to readers who like their crime fiction without the gloominess. The stakes are pretty high, but Brill still leaves room for banter and character quirks. And Ginger is not just presented as a glamorous actress. Her financial struggles and reduced professional circumstances complicate Casey’s original picture of her.

Five Hours Well Spent

:05 Seconds to Die is therefore less concerned with austere realism and more interested in momentum, personality, danger, and entertainment. Its core threat is technologically contemporary, but its storytelling often evokes a more traditional private-eye adventure, replete with wisecracks and a narrator willing to admit to the absurdity surrounding him. That blend gives the novel its identity.

I give :05 Seconds to Die 5 out of 5 stars. Brill deserves that rating for taking a big criminal premise and filtering it through a narrator with an unmistakable voice. It’s a story that keeps itself lively with a mix of technology, organized crime, humor, international movement, and old-school detective swagger, without requiring the reader to take every moment deadly seriously.

DO READ | The Jungle Comes Alive

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‘If You Self-Publish, Guess What? You Can Change Your Book’

Published on by B SudharsanLeave a comment

INTERVIEW

Angela Haas writes stories about the lives of people who have lived and stumbled. A slow-burn romance author who loves emotional tension and sharp banter, she began writing when she was about ten, filling her spare time with handwritten and typewritten stories while cassette tapes played in the background. Her writing journey has been diverse, from fantasy and superheroes to romance, including two books in her Goalkeepers of the Universe series and more works to come. Haas, who can read, speak, and understand some Italian on account of growing up in an Italian household, also co-hosts The Author Next Door podcast, which discusses the realities of indie publishing after the first book. She has a BA in Business Leadership and an MBA in Organization Leadership and Communication, has taught college-level business, mass media, and public speaking, and helps manage several brick-and-mortar retail stores with her husband. She lives part-time in Colorado Springs and part-time in Rio Verde, Arizona, and is also a photographer, a communication trainer, and active in local author communities. Outside of work and writing, her life includes three dogs, salty snacks, blankets, and emphatically no camping. B Sudharsan, Founding Editor-in-Chief, Literary Harbinger, recently interviewed her via email. The interview has been lightly edited for flow.

HARBINGER EXCLUSIVE

‘Never Thought I Could Write Romance’

B Sudharsan: It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms Haas. When did you first start writing, and what inspired you to begin?

Angela Haas: I started writing when I was ten, maybe. Grew up in a time without technology, and my parents always worked. So if I had downtime, I started writing. I would put a cassette tape in and write by hand or on a typewriter just to pass the time. And here I am, about to publish my fifth book.

B Sudharsan: Tell us about your published works and what readers can expect from your latest book.

Angela Haas: I started writing fantasy stories and then moved to superheroes in space. I published two books in my Keepers of the Universe series but actually have now gone back to rework those based on all the knowledge I have now versus four years ago. I really wanted to see older women as the Avengers, if you will. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that there is a lack of stories where women of a certain age are superheroes or soldiers, so I decided to write them myself. While I was waiting for edits to come back on book 2 in that series, I accidentally started to write a romance. I never thought I could write romance, having really read action/adventure stories, but I studied and read romances and then created a fun, faking dating wedding-themed one. My latest book is a small-town Western romance set on a Colorado ranch for veterans coming home. It’s a place for them to transition back into civilian life. It’s also about a travel writer who has to do a story on the ranch to save her career.

‘I Almost Always Have the Title First’

B Sudharsan: What does your creative process look like when you begin writing a new story?

Angela Haas: Sometimes, I begin when I hear a song that inspires me, and I can then visualize a scene like a movie, and then I start to create the characters. I almost always have to have the title first. That way it’s already manifested into existence. Once I have that title, I start working on characters, emotional wounds, setting, etc. I do know who the characters are when I write, but they sometimes take shape differently as I’m writing them.

B Sudharsan: Any authors who have had the greatest influence on your writing?

Angela Haas: I grew up reading Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, and I LOVE Emily Henry as a romance author who inspired me. I love the way the first two write humor into their stories with a little absurdism. I learned from Douglas Adams that sci-fi doesn’t have to take itself too seriously. With Emily Henry, I learned that it’s okay not to have graphic levels of spice in your romance. As long as you’ve created great characters, readers will find you.

B Sudharsan: What does your writing routine look like, and how do you stay consistent?

Angela Haas: I’m a night owl writer, which can get a little lonely because there are no writing groups that I know of that write from 9 to 12 like I do. I try to keep that schedule as my office hours whether I write or complete author business tasks. Showing up every night regardless helps me stay consistent.

B Sudharsan: Could you tell us a little about your life outside writing, including your professional and academic background?

‘I’ve Always Been a Writer’

Angela Haas: I split time between Colorado Springs and Rio Verde Arizona. My husband and I run/own several retail brick-and-mortar stores, the largest one being 24,000 sq ft. We have 200 employees, and I’ve worked in the business since I was 16. I’m turning 50 in December. We needed to escape in the winter for our mental health; otherwise, we would just work every day all day. My background is a B A in Business Leadership and an MBA in Organization Leadership and Communication. I also taught college-level classes for eight years, teaching business, mass media, and public speaking classes.

B Sudharsan: When did you consciously decide to become a published author?

Angela Haas: I mean, I’ve always been a writer. Becoming a published author was a decision. Started during COVID when I was locked down, had more time on my hands, and again, wrote to pass the time. Then, I decided to take the plunge and self-publish my first book.

B Sudharsan: May I ask what other interests occupy your creative life?

Angela Haas: I really stick to my office hours. When you run your own business, you never clock out. But that’s why I’ve learned to fight for my creative time. My other hobby is photography, and I do communication training seminars on the side. I’ve also really started networking with my local author communities, and I’ve put together classes that I present at writer conferences.

‘Selling a Few Books Is a Win Sometimes’

B Sudharsan: What are you working on now, and is becoming a full-time author ultimately the goal?

Angela Haas: I feel like I always have so many ideas, and I can’t write fast enough. For now, I’m reworking First Strike and Seconds to Oblivion, which are books one and two in my Keepers of the Universe superhero series. Then, I’m hoping to publish books three and four in that series. I also have sequels to my first two romances planned and a romantic suspense series outlined. I do intend to become a full-time author, but that won’t happen until I get more books out and start generating an income from those.

B Sudharsan: For an author disappointed by a book’s performance, what would you say about defining success and deciding what comes next?

Angela Haas: Keep going. And I would ask what their idea of ‘not performing well’ is. Selling a few books is a win sometimes. If you self-publish, guess what? You can change your book. I have gotten a lot of feedback on my first book; I read the reviews and realized that it’s not the book I actually wanted to write. It’s the book my editors and coaches at the time told me to write. I have complete power to go in and change it and republish it. If you think your book is not doing as you’d hoped, maybe run an audit on it. Then, change what you want. If you don’t want to go back, keep going, keep learning, and write a new one that’s even better.

B Sudharsan: Last but not least, if you could change or invent just one thing in the world, what would it be?

Angela Haas: I’m never one to discuss anything that might be seen as something political, so I’ll keep this light. I would invent technology that could better dissolve the plaque on your teeth. Like some sci-fi tech that makes going to the dentist much more enjoyable. I HATE going to the dentist because I hate that scraping tool on my teeth!

If you self-publish, guess what? You can change your book. I have gotten a lot of feedback on my first book; I read the reviews and realized that it’s not the book I actually wanted to write. It’s the book my editors and coaches at the time told me to write. I have complete power to go in and change it and republish it. If you think your book is not doing as you’d hoped, maybe run an audit on it. Then, change what you want. If you don’t want to go back, keep going, keep learning, and write a new one that’s even better.

~ ANGELA HAAS

ENGAGE WITH LH | Click on the cover image of the book you wish to read and buy yourself a copy right off the bat!

When Life Loses Color, Travel Paints It Back

Published on by Stavyah VatsarahLeave a comment

BOOK REVIEW

Book: Finding Color
Genre: Travel Memoir
Author: Candace MacPhie
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah

Finding Color, a travel memoir, is the first book in the five-part Back in a Year series, based on Candace MacPhie’s memories, journals, photographs, and emails home. Beginning with MacPhie struggling to rebuild her life after her mother’s demise, the memoir follows her as travel opens up possibilities beyond the routine she has fallen into. The memoir takes the reader from Canada to Greece, England, Scotland, Ireland, Russia, and beyond, but the focus remains on the person who is doing the traveling. MacPhie herself makes the distinction clear: ‘If you are looking for a travel guide for city information, this is not it.’

Grief Too Travels

Finding Color is based on grief, emotionally. At the start of the memoir, MacPhie describes how her mother’s care had consumed a large part of her life, and the loss of her mother left her uncertain about what was left. A simple admission, ‘I don’t know what I like to do or who I am if I’m not looking after others,’ gives the travel that follows a deeper purpose. It is not just a story of wanting to see more countries. It starts when a person starts imagining what it would be like to live an independent life.

Crucially, MacPhie doesn’t make that process sound graceful. She tries to do things at home, like Tai Chi, toile painting, and dragon boat racing, but they don’t fill the void. Her description of that time is typically unvarnished: ‘This last year of “finding myself” has sucked, big time.’ That sentence also captures the voice of the memoir. There are serious emotions, but they are rarely dressed up to sound profound.

A Messy Sort of Adventure

The travel writing works because MacPhie allows herself to be ridiculous. She gets lost, drinks, has a hard time in new situations, stresses over relationships, overthinks things, and sometimes is uncomfortable in her own company. In Dublin, for example, she admits, ‘This is a prime example of how traveling alone can suck.’ These moments prevent the memoir from being an idealized tale of backpacking, where every problem magically leads to wisdom.

There is also a strong late 1990s vibe throughout the book. The source material itself helps create that feeling because while MacPhie uses her emails home as anchors, her journals, photographs, and memory provide what lies behind those carefully presented messages. Elsewhere, helping a new acquaintance set up her first Hotmail account, so familiar now, quietly reminds the reader of how different travel and communication were in those days.

ALSO READ | A Secret Waiting to Be Found

Discovering More Than Places

MacPhie is also acute about the curious connection between independence and loneliness. She craves freedom, but she doesn’t say that being single is automatically freeing. At one point she confesses that nothing to occupy her is her ‘personal red-hot danger zone’ because it leads her toward overthinking and homesickness. The honesty of such observations makes her growth more credible, for confidence comes in fits and starts.

The title thus becomes significant beyond the literal colors of unknown places. Grief has made the world seem duller before, even MacPhie’s clothes and surroundings. Later, tiny decisions become echoes of a changing relationship with herself. When buying a raincoat, for example, she chooses canary yellow instead of dark purple, a small detail among many that suggests a person becoming more willing to inhabit her own life.

Journey Worth Partaking In

That’s why Finding Color works: MacPhie avoids the trap of perfect hindsight. The narrator can observe the insecurities and contradictions of the young woman living the story while still permitting that younger self to be impulsive, funny, lonely, hopeful, and sometimes frustrating. The memoir that emerges is less like someone showing off a completed transformation and more like someone reconstructing how change really happened.

I’m rating Finding Color 4.5 out of 5 stars. The blend of grief, humor, travel, relationships, and self-questioning gives the memoir emotional heft, without ever becoming somber. Most of all, MacPhie understands that simply going somewhere new doesn’t necessarily make you a new person. What’s satisfying about the book is watching someone start to find out who she might become.

DO READ | The Ascension: Where Power Meets Character

PS: Buy Finding Color by Candace MacPhie on Amazon