Tag: fsg

Review: The Emergency

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Title: The Emergency
Author: George Packer
Pages: 416
Release: November 11, 2025

A compelling and creative spin on dystopian fiction, The Emergency is a prescient fable chronicling the collapse and reformation of a nameless city-state.

The novel works best in its opening section, depicting societal collapse through the eyes of one family within this contained “city by the river.” It is especially timely, with clear parallels to our present moment as characters grapple with conspiracy theories, backlash against wokeness, debates over immigration, cancel culture, and tribalism. 

Once the protagonists venture into the countryside and encounter the more feral responses to the titular “Emergency,” the story grows unwieldy and less narratively satisfying, with shifting alliances and more thinly drawn characters. A bit more focus and less sprawl might have made these undercooked elements feel richer. 

★★★

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Weepers

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Title: Weepers
Author: Peter Mendelsund
Pages: 320
Release: June 17, 2025

A melancholy and surreal neo-Western about a band of professional mourners who offer their tear-laden eyes to a desiccated world. It evokes Station Eleven, with its troupe of performers bringing their artistry and gifts to a world now bereft of them.

Our narrator, Ed, has a very distinct worldview and his colorful oratory style held me in thrall throughout. For instance, he describes a perky character as having, “…all that vim just soda-popping through her veins,” and someone who is even-keeled as, “…sticking to his fucking row, sure as shooting, regular as rust.” 

The vibes in this book are just off the charts, and I really dug how it all played out. Mendelsund has crafted a unique tale that will surely stick in my craw. It’s sad and mournful and centered around death, yet it pulses with life in Ed’s eyes and through his narration.

★★★★

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Exit Zero: Stories

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Title: Exit Zero: Stories
Author: Marie-Helene Bertino
Pages: 208
Release: April 22, 2025

Bertino tackles heavy themes like grief, estrangement, divorce, and disconnection with the winning charm and dry wit that made her 2024 novel Beautyland such a standout. Her writing is both funny and emotionally resonant – brimming with life, verve, humor and heart.

The stories run the gamut of topics and it was amusing to see simple setups veer so wildly off course. In “Can Only Houses Be Haunted?,” a bickering couple finds that the peaches they bought from a roadside farm stand are haunted by a malign spirit. In “Exit Zero,” my favorite of the bunch, a daughter inherits a house from her estranged father – along with an unenthused, flatulent unicorn living in the backyard. Some stories, like “Edna in the Rain,” in which a woman’s ex-boyfriends literally rain from the sky, end abruptly or feel undercooked. But the majority are satisfying – both absurd and poignant in different ways.

★★★½

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Beautyland

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Title: Beautyland 
Author: Marie-Helene Bertino
Pages: 336 
Release: January 16, 2024 

Bertino skillfully dissects the alien nature of growing up and the complexities of human existence with dry wit, deadpan observational comedy, and incisive insights into life’s little absurdities.

This is a rare book where the concept and execution are both pitch perfect. Even if you dropped the fact that the main character is (oh by the way) an alien, this would still be a wonderful coming of age story. The alien angle is just gravy that Bertino plays with to great (tragi)comedic effect. Her writing is heartfelt, deeply funny, and without a whiff of cynicism about it. I loved this and can’t recommend it highly enough. 

★★★★★
✪ SPECULATIVE SHELF STARRED BOOK

My thanks to the public library for providing me with a post-release copy in exchange for a pinky promise that I’ll give it back within 14 days. (I did).