Karina Holosko, M.A. English Lit

Gritty, Paranormal “Throw Me to the Wolves” Asks if We Would Forsake One Family to Save Another

Throw Me to the Wolves (Black Spot Books) by Lindy Ryan and Christopher Brooks is an intriguing combination of supernatural thriller, paranormal romance and murder mystery — set in a small town near New Orleans where the dark forces conjured by a witch named Selena Stone lives long after she…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitMay 24, 2022

Book Club Network Fiction Fiction - Featured

Humanity’s Rules Become More Complex as AI Changes Life’s Fine Print

“Terms of Service” can be found in the fine print at the bottom of most websites we enter every day, and we blindly click “ok.” But have you ever read any of these agreements? In the existential sci-fi thriller Terms of Service, which blurs the lines between what might happen…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitMarch 4, 2022

Book Club Network Fiction

“Dava Shastri’s Last Day” Prompts Her, and Us, To Perform a Personal Perspective Overhaul

Fate is not an option. Instead, she takes charge of the when, where and how — though, as she soon learns, not everything can be so tightly scripted. In Dava Shastri’s Last Day (Grand Central), author Kirthana Ramisetti weaves a world in which the secrets of Dava’s past are free…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitNovember 30, 2021

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Fact and Fiction Blur Together as a Woman’s Reality Show Obsession Grows in “Stalker Stalked”

Stalker Stalked (Down & Out Books / All Due Respect) is a clever, fast-paced thriller with a pulp-fiction feel that I could not put down. Author Lee Matthew Goldberg is also a screen and television writer, and it shows. Just like a movie, he starts the book with a BAM! …

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitSeptember 17, 2021

Book Club Network Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Epistolary Novel “Mrs Saville” a Mesmerizing Sequel to Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

Mrs Saville (Twelve Winters Press) is an eerie novel that I could not put down, and for me, that’s rare. Author Ted Morrissey channels a fictional character in a way that I have never experienced before. It reminded me of the practice of automatic writing in which a person goes…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitJuly 8, 2021

Better Self Nonfiction

“Your Destiny Is Inside You” and Here’s Your Guide to Discovering It

Your Destiny is Inside You by Ana Pat is a powerful and philosophical self-help book that encourages a personal journey rather than a one-stop shopping experience. From the moment I started to read, I was seduced by the prose, Pat's intelligence, and how he gently nudged his philosophical beliefs into my…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitMay 6, 2021

Better Self Book Club Network Nonfiction

Donna Bond’s “Original Wisdom” Helps Readers Unlock the Insight Within

Inspired, intelligent and life-changing, Original Wisdom (Halo Publishing International) is not one of those preachy self-help books with “a cure for anything that ails ya.” It’s the real deal. Author Donna Bond has generously offered herself as a spiritual guide and her book as a gift. And if you can…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitApril 19, 2021

Book Club Network Fiction

Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun” Explores Humanity and the Ethical Conundrum of AI

“A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.” — Kirkus Reviews —∞— “Moving and beautiful … an unequivocal return to form, a meditation in the subtlest shades on the subject of whether our species will be able to live with everything it has created." — The Los…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitMarch 2, 2021

Fiction

Brimming With Political Tension, “The Sun Collective” Is an Eerily Relevant Supernatural Thriller

https://booktrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/booktrib_Baxter_TheSunCollective.jpg Like a skilled magician, Charles Baxter, author of The Soul Thief, messes with reality just enough to transport the reader into an ominous fog of "tomorrow-plus-today” — Baxter’s shorthand for interwoven timelines. In his supernatural thriller, The Sun Collective (Pantheon), a cultist new age movement has taken root in…

Karina Holosko, M.A. English LitNovember 17, 2020