​Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash is a novel that follows the Flynn family through strange and ridiculous situations involving the three daughters, Abigail, Harper, and Louise. The mother, Catherine, begins an affair with their neighbor after the father, Bud, has become a lackluster companion. His job as a port accountant for the richest man in town is boring and as he learns of his wife’s infidelity his job tells him to join a group at the church for wandering souls called Lost Lambs. All while this is happening, one of the daughters is messaging a man online who goads her into creating a bomb for a beauty pageant, another is dating a security guard for the richest man in town, and the third is so smart she begins to believe that there is a ship that goes missing from Bud’s accounting. Bud begins to have an affair with the leader of Lost Lambs to get back at Catherine. He also takes his job more seriously, following the tip of his daughter, and realizes that a yearly shipment is always redacted from the records. When he begins to look into it further, the rich man, Paul Alabaster, personally pays him off. The other sister, Abigail, falls so much in love with her security guard boyfriend that when she gets an invitation to the Alabaster mansion, she believes her boyfriend will be there. It turns out that she was brought to the mansion so that Alabaster could take her blood to revitalize himself age-wise. It happens at an annual party that has an Eyes Wide Shut vibe where very rich and powerful men drink the blood of young girls, namely the girls that were trafficked in the redacted shipments. Though, the other two sisters find out this is happening and bust in with the boyfriend to rescue their sister and the trafficked girls. In the end, Paul Alabaster gets by unscathed but the girls are able to be free.
 
Lost Lambs has an insane plot and smaller subplots that are so ridiculous and intertwined it’s amazing at how they can all fit within one novel. The details themselves are so specific and strange and striking. Take for example the neighbor’s ceramic vaginas, or Tibet the character being named after where she was conceived. There is one really cool syntactic thing Cash does, which is that in the story a church is overrun by gnats. And those gnats aren’t just referenced, but stuck themselves into the language. So instead of, say, “nation”, the story would say, “gnation”. In effect creating an annoyance on the page similar to the infestation the church was facing. Then when the church is fumigated, this intentional misspelling disappears. It’s details like that that make Lost Lambs so engaging. That and the voice, which has this sarcastic and dry humor that teases the characters and situations. Such a fun read!
 
Final Rating: 4.5/5

​Say Nephew by Steven Pfau is a collection of essays revolving around a nephew’s understanding of his gay uncle, Bruce, as he grows up learning he himself is gay. The essays navigate queerness and mentorship through discussions on topics such as cruising, hosting (both parties and hook-up), the kink scene, and a leather bar, among other things. The uncle-nephew relationship is also looked at in a critical lens with references to a controversial book titled The Story of Harold to the nephew of Gertrude Stein who posed for Picasso. And Pfau also discusses the more taboo side of that relationship which parallels that of a daddy/boy kink some queer men act out. Though, the essays provide an understanding of a man who has found a mentor in his alcoholic, lively, and queer uncle when he was growing up and wandering Bruce’s house that had pictures of revealing men to a moment right before he leaves for college. This moment in particular, a moment on a couch where Bruce seems to be pining for his real-life nephew when he was quite drunk, may be what enhances, or puts more nuance to, the relationship. As the speaker notes, “Whenever I could see you in the future, I could be more afraid of you, now that I know what you’re capable of…” Though, there certainly are lighter moments such as a man stealing someone else’s pee at a bathroom bar trough and pouring it over himself to a couple hosting him at a cabin while they have their way with him, or finding a stray dog and raising it. A decent read.
 
3.5/5

​Rogue Astronaut by Mitchell Jacobs is a collection of poems selected by Patricia Smith as a finalist for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. It roughly follows the speaker’s father’s supposed alien abduction, the near fatal suicide attempt of the brother, and the speaker’s queer life with past lovers. The collection is themed around monsters and sci-fi such as The Thing, while also using religious imagery as the context for the speaker’s life. The language is exacting and humorous, seen most specifically in the poems, ‘Foreplay’, and ‘My Ex-Boyfriend Asks to Make a Silicone Replica So He Can Take Me with Him When He Moves Abroad’. Where in the former, “kneed” versus “need” are contemplated during an accidental bump during sex and the later for its premise and execution. Other poems that delighted me were ‘Mirror’, ‘Jesus Watches Me Get My Ass Swabbed’, ‘Ministration for the French Horn’, and ‘Hypnos’. Though, amongst all the humor, the speaker is dealing with his brother’s attempt at jumping off a building in ‘Apse with Stained Glass Triptych of the Crucifixion’. This poem has an interesting form, where the stanzas are squished into rectangles alongside three photos, effectively creating the feeling that the words written are coming through a phone screen. Quite an extraordinary read!
 
Final Rating: 4.5/5