Jennifer Frost Writes

“We write to create the books that we would like to read, that haven’t yet been written—possibly.”—Joyce Carol Oates

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Category: Book Reviews

  • “Faces in the Flames,” by N.T. McQueen

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    14 August 2026

    Coming in August 2026 from Silent Clamor Press, Faces in the Flames by N.T. McQueen gives us a multi-faceted gem in the shape of Stone Lake, CA, the fictional hill town captured in this short story collection. Each of these thirteen stories stands alone, published separately prior to this edition, and combining here into not-quite-a-novel, but a rich picture of semi-rural community life. With each new tale, McQueen shows us another face reflecting Stone Lake’s smoky light in its own peculiar way, the homes built by the contractor whose family is falling apart, the sermons preached by a pastor whose heart is filled with doubt. Each protagonist is destined for a bit part later on, while the local haunts, taverns, and discount stores become as familiar as home, we revisit them so often in these pages. Like McQueen’s varied cast of Stone Lake residents, we’ve lived here all our lives.

    Hanging over these stories, like the smoke from the omnipresent hill fires above Stone Lake, there’s an atmosphere of poetic longing. Misunderstood Mouthy Mary, shiftless Homer Bagby, the inscrutable Larry Holliday Jr., they weave their stories of loss and lost chances around one another, suffering their frustrations and despair alone even as, denizens of a small town, they pass so close. Yet most of these tales end with redemption, or at least the hope of it. McQueen isn’t asking us to pity these long-suffering souls but to rejoice with them as they arrive at deeper understanding, that the past can be left behind, the hatchet can be buried.

    The author’s style is unique and while each story is told from a different point of view, the narrative voice remains constant throughout, an omniscient teller of everyone’s tale, one by one. Though we are privy to their thoughts, these characters’ voices are filtered, never spoken in quoted dialogue, woven instead like threads into a homogeneous whole. As we navigate through neighborhoods rich and poor, into and out of houses, schools, and workplaces, the voice that takes us there is calm and objective, observing events and emotions, relating them with accuracy, without judgement. And if there are some secrets we’ll never learn, well isn’t that just like life in a small town? Faces in the Flames gives us nothing on a platter, but everything we need to know, leaving us with the feeling that it’s the fire on the hillside that will finally cleanse us, that all our sins might finally be burned away.

    Thanks to Silent Clamor Press for an advanced reader’s copy. Faces in the Flames launches August 25, 2026. Preorder at https://www.silentclamor.com/faces-in-the-flames

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  • Simple Songs for the End of the World by MC Schmidt

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    7 August 2026

    Even before the story, the music begins. “Here’s a tune I wrote before any of this,” goes the first sentence of Simple Songs for the End of the World, spoken by Gus as he gives us a line of musical notation, a little melody high up in treble clef, just a few bars. “I hum it when things get uncomfortable,” he says. Throughout Simple Songs for the End of the World, author MC Schmidt embeds Gus’s music into the text, the tunes accompanying a sweetly human story of resilience through adversity. As Gus faces an emasculating battle with cancer, an accident in space simultaneously shuts down all satellite communications, leaving the whole world as bewildered as our newly diagnosed protagonist. What happens next? How do we keep track of each other? How do we hold on?

    Gus navigates the new reality through his music, simple songs strummed on a beloved guitar, an artistic response to the chaos unfolding, the punishing medical treatments, and the world outside hoarding toilet paper as its cell phones go dark. Meanwhile, Gus finds his way forward through the new songs he’s composing and recording in his room, relying on the art that has always centered him, common ground for himself and a rich cast of bandmates and likeminded friends. With his bold-as-brass German mother and the ex-girlfriend he should never have let go, Gus’s journey transcends the fear of a painful death from cancer. With the sudden decline in technological connections, human relationships rush in to fill the void, and by the end it’s clear that nothing is over, hope was never lost, that our hearts had been longing all along for a reason to put down our phones.

    Schmidt’s novel, with its accompanying soundtrack (accessed via QR code), is a breath of fresh air. These are characters you want to know, who make you believe that the good in each of us is only waiting to be unleashed. The songs are as simple as advertised and in that way, disarming. Here is the homemade sound of heartfelt music by an artist who has found the true meaning of his craft. These tunes would never have gone viral, would never have caught the ear of an influencer, or made the rounds on TikTok. But now, in Gus’s post-satellite reality, it doesn’t matter. All that artificiality is gone. And what’s left? A few Simple Songs for the End of the World.

    Thanks to Silent Clamor Press for an advanced reader’s copy. Simple Songs was released June 30, 2026. Order at https://www.silentclamor.com/simple-songs-for-the-end-of-the-world

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  • A More Perfect Union (Briefs), A Book of Essays by Alexander Moss

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    Reviewed, 2/24/2022. Reposted, 4/10/2026

    Alexander Moss is not a journalist or politico. A More Perfect Union (Briefs) is not a book of war cries and saber rattling. Instead, this thoughtful book written by a concerned and well-informed citizen opens a level of discourse that has all but disappeared amid the current crises. Moss introduces himself as a lifelong student of American politics, an educated person seeking sanity when the federal government is in decline.

    In his preface, Moss shows reservations about the state of our nation, beginning with the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school—is our union as homogenous as the idealistic (and paradoxically religious) Pledge? Are we ‘indivisible?’ He describes writing the essays which led to A More Perfect Union to discuss his own growing fears of the disastrous potential outcomes of political factionalism and irreconcilable differences. “Just a way to get over the stress,” he writes. It is because a second civil war is such a terrifying prospect that he devises an alternative approach.

    Recent YouGov/Bright
    Line Watch surveys show
    “that 47% of Democrats
    on the West Coast and 66%
    of Republicans in Texas
    and the South support
    breaking up the United States
    into new, regional unions.”

    The most compelling statistics presented in A More Perfect Union are front and center, referenced in the summary and repeated regularly to support Moss’s meticulous dissection of where we are now and where we might go depending on the trajectory we choose. Recent YouGov/Bright Line Watch surveys show “that 47% of Democrats on the West Coast and 66% of Republicans in Texas and the South support breaking up the United States into new, regional unions.”

    With this as his starting point, Moss outlines an actionable plan for devolving the United States into six new nations. Moss’s annotated briefs often refer to the longer version of his book, A More Perfect Union (Essays). That book presents Moss’s full analysis of the primary sources he uses to build a case for peaceful secession. He includes these sources in (Briefs) as links to online resources and publicly available materials which underpin his arguments.

    The book ends with an action plan, concrete suggestions for concerned citizens who want to support initiatives and referendums resulting in a peaceful division of the United States. With outcomes for economics, trade, international standing and the military (including bases and nuclear weaponry) accounted for, Moss urges his fellow citizens to consider this alternative to violent conflict. He has a simple message for partisans struggling to preserve our basic American freedoms. A thoughtful, organized separation may be the best way to keep us from splintering apart.

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    Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for an Advance Readers Copy of this title. A More Perfect Union launches on 9 March 2022.

    This review appeared first on Reedsy.com https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/a-more-perfect-union-briefs-alex-moss#review

  • Bueno: The Things I Learned from Papi by Elsa Sosa

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    Reviewed, 18 June 2022

    Bueno: The Things I Learned from Papi is a treasure of family lore. The entwining threads of bloodlines and marriages, successes, and losses shape the story of each member. Bueno gathers what it can of the rich Sosa history into a volume, preserving it for future generations. In it, Elsa Sosa explains what she knows of her father’s life and legacy, pulling together tales of family and childhood in the Dominican Republic.

    Accompanied by family snapshots, Sosa’s memoir imparts her feeling for the island way of life. She gives airport and shopping advice alongside a basic geography of the island and highlights for tourists. She makes her own memories of homelier stuff. Far from resorts and nightclubs are the rural places and far-flung beaches where the author and her eight siblings spent their childhood. She remembers homemade toys, outdoor games, and cooling off under a waterfall on scorching afternoons. When she returns as an adult, she seeks local vendors, secluded getaways, and authentic tostones. Under the mango tree, Papi sits smoking cigarettes and chatting to pretty women.

    Bueno, though it records Sosa family memories, is more a love letter to a departed father. In it, Sosa longs to sort through the past and cement her connection to her immense extended family. Life lessons are hard to discern, unclear until late in the book. Sosa attributes only one piece of wisdom directly to Papi; “He taught us not to spend our lives with regrets, grudges, and to let people live their lives.”

    Photo by Drift Shutterbug on Pexels.com

    While Sosa explains how she struggles to live up to Papi’s ideal, she comforts herself, knowing she and her siblings doted on their parents in old age. She wrestles with her father’s stoicism, her mother’s domineering, and familial links more complex and fragile than she realized. With gaps in the story, questions left unasked, names forgotten, and connections unraveled, many dimensions of her adored Papi (and Mami), Elsa Sosa will never know.

    There is rich material in Bueno, though it’s hard to dig out. The author’s stream of consciousness brings us through flashbacks and flash-forwards so often that Sosa, herself, loses track of her trajectory. Sometimes we hear the same advice twice. Other times, forgotten details leave holes in the stories that make them difficult to interpret. While Sosa can tell us virtually nothing of her parents’ early lives and even less of their ancestors, we hear travel directions and culinary recommendations multiple times. She observes near the end of Bueno that she is a keen photographer, recording memories throughout her life with a camera, not in writing. Like photography, memoir writing is a refined art requiring many years to master.

    Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for an Advance Reader’s Copy of this title. Bueno (The Things I Learned from Papi) launches on 15 July 2022.

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  • If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

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    Reviewed, 7 June 2022

    Escoffery’s new collection of short stories fit together as neatly as a novel. “In Flux,” the collection’s opening piece gives the author’s answer to the peculiarly American question, “What are you?” As a nation obsessed with lineage, we’ve all considered mail-order DNA kits and websites promising to reveal our connections to royalty. We’re familiar with playground questions about ancestry. When Escoffery’s character, Trelawny, faces blunt identity questions, he examines that overwhelming American trait, assimilation.

    These eight stories combine to form a picture of a Jamaican family in transition. As they gain a foothold in Florida, the needs of extended family and wishes to return to simpler times pull them back to their roots. Between biting winters at a northern university and sunny Jamaican beaches, the youngest son, Trelawny, finds an uncomfortable middle ground in his hometown, Miami. But misfortune hounds the family. Hurricanes, unpredictable income, and secrets from the past batter them as they struggle to stay connected. Underneath it lies a cracked foundation, a cherished house sinking.

    It’s hard to avoid phrases like, “powerhouse short stories,” and “dazzling debut.” Each story enlightens the rest, making the collection a perfect balance of tenderness and grit, hope, and despair. Escoffery’s dark humor rings throughout, hip and down-to-earth. Defiant in the face of adversity, Trelawny wills himself through hard times. Even in despair, the faded American dream calls. There must still be a way to realize it. If there isn’t, he’ll make one.

    Thanks to Net Galley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of this title. If I Survive You launches, September 2022.

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