Path of the Half Moon by Vince Bailey

There has to be a great deal of skill to pull off a literary mashup like this. Imagine a superb paranormal Western novel complete with settlers, cowboys, sheriffs, demons, devils, Native American specters, magic, hard labor, and the mystique of the vast desert. Its author, Vince Bailey, a native of Arizona, knows all of these things well.

His debut novel, Path of The Half Moon, a winner of the Arizona Author’s Association Award, comes from his youth and his obsession with Western folklore. The leading character, Curtis Jefferson, supposedly commits a crime, a lawless adventure seen by a single eyewitness. A charge of arson accompanies the lad’s conviction to a juvenile detention center with a bad reputation, built on the historic site of an Indian massacre. More ?

Running to Fall: A Novel by Kalisha Buckhanon (Reviewed by BookLife)

Buckhanon (Speaking of Summer) reveals the emotional complexity behind the facade of upward mobility for young Black women in this tense novel of suburban dysphoria. Tragedy Powell and her successful podcaster husband Victor have moved to the insulated, upscale Chicago-area suburb of Grayson, trying to fit in despite how few other people of color reside there. When the body of missing nineteen-year old Raven McCoy washes up in the Grayson River, Tragedy feels haunted by her ghost, and by the echoes of her own traumatic past. Though Tragedy knows she needs to reckon with her supposedly secret drinking problem, the stress in her relationship with Victor’s ex and daughter, and her limited social life make resolve hard to find.

Buckhanon’s weaving of thriller elements into a literary novel works beautifully, especially early on, as the focus on how the investigation into Raven’s death impacts Tragedy, as one of the few Black residents, positions the story arc about Tragedy’s drinking as secondary, until it slowly takes center stage. Tragedy is a complex, relatable, and empathetic character, and though some of the cast can come across as stylized, this increases the impression of Tragedy’s self-centeredness—we know them through her perspective. More ?

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