Isabella Zhou, Book Reviewer

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Book Review

One Level Down

by Isabella Zhou

In Mary G. Thompson’s empathetic novel "One Level Down", a woman forced into a child’s body fights to escape her father’s simulation. Escaping Earth’s overcrowding and irreparable environmental damage, colonists encounter disease... Read More

Book Review

Sour Cherry

by Isabella Zhou

In Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting novel "Sour Cherry", women are entrapped by the gluttonous monstrosities of their sons and husbands. To elucidate her husband’s abuse, a mother tells her child a story about a cursed lord. She begins... Read More

Book Review

Optional Practical Training

by Isabella Zhou

In Shubha Sunder’s novel "Optional Practical Training", an Indian immigrant tries to make a home in the US. After completing her undergraduate degree, Pavrita begins teaching physics at a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, extending... Read More

Book Review

The Dissenters

by Isabella Zhou

In Youssef Rakha’s bold novel "The Dissenters", a son pieces together his mother’s Egyptian story. Following his mother’s death, Nour experiences visions of her in their attic. Piecemeal, he writes to his estranged sister, Shimo,... Read More

Book Review

Ibis

by Isabella Zhou

A fishing village plagued by ghosts and omens unites to protect a refugee girl in Justin Haynes’s potent novel "Ibis". The site of a vicious sugar plantation centuries ago, New Felicity, Trinidad, is a nexus for Venezuelan refugees.... Read More

Book Review

Theory & Practice

by Isabella Zhou

In Michelle de Kretser’s novel Theory & Practice, a Sri Lankan graduate student completes her thesis while embroiled in a love affair. In 1986, a woman takes rooms in Melbourne to research her thesis on Virginia Woolf. She wrestles... Read More

Book Review

The Edge of Water

by Isabella Zhou

Shifting between Nigeria and the US, Olufunke Grace Bankole’s novel "The Edge of Water" is about the separation and reunion of mothers and daughters. Esther details her experience of motherhood through letters to her daughter Amina,... Read More

Book Review

Honey Hunger

by Isabella Zhou

A smitten Omani man’s beekeeping consumes Zahran Alqasmi’s novel "Honey Hunger". Returning to his home village after a tough winter that forced the temporary relocation of his bee colony to the desert region of Juba, Azzan, a... Read More

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