Grendel (1971)

Split Tooth

Tanya Tagaq

2018 · 193 pages · 4 reviews

Others: Positive

Split Tooth is a 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq. Based in part on her own personal journals, the book tells the story of a young Inuk woman growing up in the Canadian Arctic in the 1970s. The book has been described as a blend of fiction, memoir, poetry and Inuit folklore. Characterized by the publisher as magic realism, it has also been seen as an example of Daniel Heath Justice's critical concept of "wonderworks" or literature by Indigenous North American writers that defies conventional Western notions of literary genres. The book won the Indigenous Voices Award for English Prose in 2019. The novel was also longlisted for the 2018 Giller Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

The Odyssey

Homer

2007 · 374 pages · 8 reviews

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. So begins Robert Fagles's magnificent translation of the Odyssey. If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of the everyman's journey through life. During his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, Odysseus relies on his wit and wiles for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces. In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom. It's a version to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation.

Queer Little Nightmares

David Ly

2022 · 2 reviews

Others: Positive

The fiction and poetry of Queer Little Nightmares reimagines monsters old and new through a queer lens, subverting the horror gaze to celebrate ideas and identities canonically feared in monster lit. Throughout history, monsters have appeared in popular culture as stand-ins for the non-conforming, the marginalized of society. Pushed into the shadows as objects of fear, revulsion, and hostility, these characters have long conjured fascination and self-identification in the LGBTQ+ community, and over time, monsters have become queer icons. In Queer Little Nightmares, creatures of myth and folklore seek belonging and intimate connection, cryptids challenge their outcast status, and classic movie monsters explore the experience of coming into queerness. The characters in these stories and poems - the Minotaur camouflaged in a crowd of cosplayers, a pubescent werewolf, a Hindu revenant waiting to reunite with her lover, a tender-hearted kaiju, a lagoon creature aching for the swimmers above him, a ghost of Pride past - relish their new sparkle in the spotlight. Pushing against tropes that have historically been used to demonize, the queer creators of this collection instead ask: What does it mean to be (and to love) a monster? Contributors include Amber Dawn, David Demchuk, Hiromi Goto, jaye simpson, Eddy Boudel Tan, and Kai Cheng Thom.

Anita

Keith Roberts

1970 · 221 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams

C.L. Moore

2002 · 448 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

Elric of Melniboné

Michael Moorcock

1972 · 192 pages · 5 reviews

Others: Mostly positive

Elric of Melniboné is a 1972 fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock. It is the first original full-length novel to feature Elric, the last emperor of the stagnating island civilisation of Melniboné who wields the cursed, soul-drinking sword Stormbringer.