Sep 01 2026

As If by Isabel Waidner

Compellingly written but also so set on not being too weird — or, perhaps, in being decidedly ambiguous — that it feels oddly unsatisfying, especially to a genre enthusiast like myself.

Aubrey Lewis is a forty-six year-old actor who’s sunk into a depression following the death of his wife Laurie. He subleases an apartment filled with someone else’s things, and listlessly considers getting back into acting again, following a chance meeting with a former co-worker who thinks he’d be great for a reboot she’s been working on.

When Lindsey Korine walks into Lewis’ apartment and starts making himself at home, Lewis doesn’t even dispute the other man’s right to be there. Korine has just walked out on his own wife Laurie, who survived the disease that killed Lewis’ spouse. Korine has never had much of a career, but he’s interested in acting. The two men are physically alike enough that when Korine decides to take Lewis’ spot at the audition, no one seems to notice the difference.

Lewis, meanwhile, has been co-opted by the living Laurie to take Korine’s place, for the benefit of their son. The more he gets comfortable playing the part of Korine, the less he wants to go back to his old life. As the two men gradually begin to confront the results of their choices, they begin to wonder whether the road not taken was the road they should have been on all along, and what they should do about it now that they have.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/09/01/as-if-by-isabel-waidner/

Aug 31 2026

The Ghost In Cabin 13 by J.C. Phillipps

Is it just me or is the horror genre having a major resurgence this year? Perhaps it’s related to the growing phenomenon of Summerween and the accompanying marketing opportunities: it just feels like horror titles are making a bigger splash than usual lately. I, personally, have mixed feelings on the genre, even as I acknowledge that I’ve very much enjoyed most of the recent titles I’ve read that fall more squarely under the label than into my general preferences of mystery and sci-fi/fantasy. I think it’s fair to say that horror has done a terrific job of incorporating more of those other genres lately, with an accompanying improvement in literary quality (see also the growth of the term “speculative fiction” to encompass the blurring of the lines between sci-fi, fantasy and horror.)

This improvement is exemplified in JC Phillipps’ recently published Middle Grade graphic novel, The Ghost In Cabin 13. It’s a sweet and funny coming-of-age tale with a seriously scary backbone. Essentially, twelve and a half year-old Leah is being sent to sleepaway camp for a week. Her parents have asked for her to be roomed with slightly older teenagers, in large part due to wanting her to set aside childish things (e.g. her doll Beverly) and embrace the next step to adulthood. Parents can be so dumb sometimes, lol.

Anyway, Cabin Four isn’t super thrilled to be saddled with a twelve and a half year-old, especially one who still carries around a doll. On the first night, the oldest campers decide to have a seance at the forbidden Cabin 13, a dilapidated building that Reese, the storyteller, insists is haunted by the ghost of a dead woman. When Reese discovers that Leah snuck Beverly into the proceedings, Reese makes fun of the younger girl… until the doll is snatched out of her hands by unseen forces. The rest of the campers panic and flee, but Leah scrambles to recover her doll before she leaves. Unsurprisingly, she gets lost on the way back to Cabin Four, and spills the beans to the counsellor she finally comes across. Even tho Reese convinces Connie that Leah was just having a bad dream, thus allowing the older girls to escape any punishment, Cabin 4 unsurprisingly turns against Leah for being a snitch.

Crushed, Leah decides to just have fun by herself with Beverly. But when she discovers that the ghost in Cabin 13 is very real, and that the ghost has more than a passing interest in Beverly, everything changes. Will her strange experiences at camp finally help Leah embrace growing up and allow her to leave her doll behind? Or will her haunted doll have very different plans for both their futures?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/31/the-ghost-in-cabin-13-by-j-c-phillipps/

Aug 30 2026

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson

As a relatively uninformed reader of The Odyssey — one trip through it unaccompanied while traveling across Central Europe in the mid-1990s; I don’t even remember which translation I read, only that I was mesmerized — I was happy to read all of Emily Wilson’s introductory material before embarking on the poem itself. What is known about Homer, and the poetic tradition from which the two Homeric epics emerged? What are contemporary discussions concerned with when they take on the intersection of archeology, linguistics and literature that The Odyssey presents? I was glad to have her set the scene and sketch the surroundings, and to state up front what her main decisions about translating the epic would be: all in iambic pentameter, as the natural meter of English epic verse, and the same number of lines as Homer’s Odyssey. This was all in 2022, well before this summer’s movie version was even a gleam in Christopher Nolan’s scriptwriting eye. Her Iliad was also the first one that I found I could read. I had bounced off of several others through the years, and I read hers in about three weeks.

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson

All of which piqued my interest in Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, a collection of essays about translating and classical literature. The book contains 13 essays — seven of which were published elsewhere, as far as I can tell — along with an introduction, an afterword, and suggestions for further reading. Wilson writes in her introduction that all were thoroughly revised and reworked for this publication. I do wish that Wilson and her publisher had included the information about original publication with the essays themselves, instead of burying them on the copyright page, because when she writes something like “Stoicism is having a moment” (p. 132), I would like to know when in the twenty-year period of writing that moment was had, or whether I should presume it includes the 2026 moment of publication. The fine print reveals that “Chill Out with the Stoics” was first published in The New Republic in 2010. The essay’s second sentence mentions a book that was published in 2016, so its inclusion was clearly part of the revision process, and the moment has apparently lasted more than a decade and a half, which seems to me a bit long for a moment, but maybe a classicist sees things differently.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/30/crossing-the-wine-dark-sea-by-emily-wilson/

Aug 28 2026

Tantalizing Tales — August 2026 — Part Four

I can’t believe August is already coming to a close, dear readers, or how cool it’s started getting out at night already. June and July were awfully hot, and I’m surprised August hasn’t been more of the same. While I’m glad it’s not worse, I’m also not super looking forward to colder weather already.

One book I am looking forward to, however, is Mackenzie Reed’s brilliantly titled adult debut I Hope This Email Finds You In Hell. This genre-blending urban romantasy satire revolves around Brie Benson, who does not love her job as receptionist at a life insurance company. Between the recent death of her parents and her mind-numbing daily routine, she’s learned to compartmentalize well.

Until, that is, she walks in on her uptight but undeniably hot boss Luke performing an exorcism on Debra from accounting. Luke reveals that he’s the latest in a long line of demon hunters and swears Brie to secrecy. Brie accepts, but when her emotional support coworker goes missing — presumably abducted by demons — she persuades Luke to let her accompany him on his rescue mission. Trouble is, that mission involves plumbing the depths of hell, which Brie discovers has uncanny parallels with the corporate monstrosities and bureaucratic nightmares she’s already familiar with. Will she and Luke be able to fight their way through the underworld, rescue their colleague and repair the torn veil between worlds, all while battling the attraction growing between them?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/28/tantalizing-tales-august-2026-part-four/

Aug 27 2026

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

The Odyssey translated by Emily WilsonEven writing down the title of this post enrages me, because this entire experience has been an exercise in pedantry that makes me get all Ben Affleck exclaiming “Fictional characters!” in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. We at The Frumious Consortium don’t usually credit translators in post titles, but in this case it feels very necessary, as Emily Wilson’s choices are stamped all over the work. Which is fine, great even! But given the source materials and publishing conventions and the recent controversies, writing the title this way feels like referring to Ultimate Spider-Man as “Spider-Man by Stan Lee, translated by Brian Michael Bendis.” I freely acknowledge that that might be an iykyk reference but I am sick to the teeth of this book and this drama, yet feel obligated to write about it and hopefully, after today and my subsequent newsletter, never treat it as the main subject of a piece again.

Yes, this grumpy ass attitude is going to permeate the rest of this review, sns. I think I would be more inclined to generosity if Ms Wilson had displayed a similar munificence of spirit in addressing the recent Christopher Nolan movie that also adapted this ancient story. I guess this is going to be both a review of her translation of this book as well as the film that she’s so bizarrely tied herself to, via her vituperative yet media-illiterate criticism of it. Feel free to bail on this review at any time, dear reader, or check out Doug’s far less annoyed perspective.

Anyway, here’s a lot of back story as to where I’m coming from with my review. I’ve been obsessed with Greek mythology since I was probably about eight years old, if not earlier: coincidentally the same age as Ms Wilson’s own discovery of the canon. Along with superheroes (which you know I will continue to reference in this review,) they were my favorite thing to read about. As a child, I read about both A Lot, and continue to read about each probably more than the average adult does nowadays.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/27/the-odyssey-by-homer-translated-by-emily-wilson/

Aug 26 2026

We Are Pan by Andre R. Frattino & Yasmín Flores Montañez

with vibrant colors by Fabi Marques.

For the longest time, I thought this was a graphic novel for Middle Grade readers, likely due to its cover. It is very much a Young Adult+ story tho, revolving as it does around five young people who are sent away from Cuba to evade Fidel Castro’s regime. Operation Peter/Pedro Pan was a perhaps not all that well-thought-out, real life mission to airlift kids to “safety” out of Cuba, led by the undoubtedly well-intended Catholic priest Father Bryan Walsh.

The five kids at the heart of this book all come from different situations. Rosa, the eldest, waits tables at a cafe while her parents eagerly welcome Castro’s attempts to overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Eugenio dreams of studying art in Prague with his love Tomas, while his younger brother Joaquin seethes for reasons never fully explained. Wilfredo, the youngest, wants to be a musician just like his dad. And Antonia, whose voice carries the main narrative, is the pampered daughter of a lawyer who very much disapproves of Castro and passes that disdain on to his child.

We Are Pan does the best job it can to describe what it felt like to live in Cuba right before Batista fled, through Castro’s takeover and into the years beyond, as the liberation forces turned into an oppressive regime of its own. The kids all have differing experiences before they get on those planes, but most of them are sent by families scared of losing them to what they see as worse fates at the hands of the new government. Arriving in the United States is disorienting, as the kids are mostly split up while waiting for the rest of their families to make it over. The scenes with the kids doing their best to adjust and survive in the US were the most touching, for me.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/26/we-are-pan-by-andre-r-frattino-yasmin-flores-montanez/

Aug 25 2026

Fall Harvest Mini Coloring Book by Gaynor Carradice

It has been a draining year, y’all. There have been so many high points (Arsenal winning the league! My babies starting another year of school!) but also so many low points (my mysterious ongoing health issues, creeping fascism, and now the death of actual angel Dolly Parton included.) I’ve had to let so many things, primarily artistic, fall by the wayside. So far this year I’ve done a grand total of two art classes, when I used to do them almost weekly.

So when the lovely publicist at Adams Media (hi, Cindy!) offered me this title, I jumped at the chance! Something small and low pressure like this seemed like the perfect way to ease myself back into a regular creative practice. And now that I’ve had the chance to try it out, dear reader, I can assure you that this has been absolutely therapeutic in allowing me to enjoy making art once more.

The book itself fits the Cute ‘n’ Cozy name of the series perfectly. At about four inches square, it’s compact and easy to throw into an art kit. The forty-five black and white line illustrations inside feature both bold patterns and more intricate designs, all revolving around the theme of autumn and the harvest. Gaynor Carradice has drawn some lovely little scenes here, featuring the charming anthropomorphic animals that she’s especially good at.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/25/fall-harvest-mini-coloring-book-by-gaynor-carradice/

Aug 24 2026

Swing! by James Yang

With US Open fever getting underway, what better time to look at a delightfully retro kids’ book about tennis star Arthur Ashe — namesake of the main arena at the world’s largest tennis stadium — and the very personal effect he had on at least one family in the 1970s.

Our unnamed protagonist loves tennis and especially Arthur Ashe, who has a one-handed backhand just like her dad does. She and her dad love both playing and watching tennis together. But sometimes, our heroine has a bad day on the court, and her brain starts bouncing up and down like a tennis ball that she can’t get under control. And sometimes she has a bad day at school, with her schoolmate Timmy bugging her — the only Asian person there — for attention in increasingly irritating ways.

When Dad suggests that they take a break during a particularly frustrating passage of tennis, our heroine asks if she can get glasses like Arthur Ashe too. As they try on several pairs at the store, Dad tells her about all the ways in which Arthur Ashe is a hero, both on and off the court. Soon, she’s reconsidering her approach to both tennis and Timmy, and discovering the power of both courtesy and self-control.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/24/swing-by-james-yang/

Aug 22 2026

A Parish Chronicle by Halldór Laxness

I picked up A Parish Chronicle because I had never read anything by Halldór Laxness, and this looked short enough to be a low-investment place to start. Mission accomplished, then, for the publisher Vintage Classics, who issued the book as part of their “Brief Encounters” series, which they flag as “Short books. Timeless stories.” Other authors in the series include Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, J.G. Ballard, Roberto Bolaño, Mikhail Bulgakov and Italo Calvino, and that’s just from the first three letters of the alphabet. The works chosen for these authors are also not the obvious ones, by and large. It’s nice to be in the target audience: people who might like to take a flyer on a big literary name without committing to one of the major works. Joyce but not Ulysses; Toni Morrison but not Beloved (though that one is fewer than 400 pages); Melville but not Moby-Dick. Thus with Laxness, I didn’t have to dive in at the deep end with 500+ pages of Independent People; I could sample the 112 page of A Parish Chronicle.

A Parish Chronicle by Halldór Laxness

The parish in question is Mosfell, which Laxness portrays as an out of the way place in western Iceland, somewhat on the way from Reykjavik to the northern coast. It may have been such in the mid-1800s when the bulk of A Parish Chronicle takes place, but in fact it is all of 12 kilometers east of the capital. Travellers occasionally pass through, bringing news of weather and sheep from other places, those two topics being the main items of interest in and around Mosfell. The locality was the site of the burial mound belonging to Egill Skallagrímsson, a saga poet. When Christianity came to the country, his remains were exhumed and brought to a church. Whether his bones — reputed to be inhumanly large — are still located somewhere in or near the church is difficult to say.

If you look at Mosfell now, you would think that the church had been there on the hill, its steeple silhouetted against the clouds, since ancient times. This, however, is not the case. Again and again this church disappeared from the hill. Over and over, it was thoroughly erased from the pages of history and omitted from the laws of God and man, failed to appear in written documents, was neglected in oral tradition. (p. 2)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/22/a-parish-chronicle-by-halldor-laxness/

Aug 21 2026

Tantalizing Tales — August 2026 — Part Three

This was a weird day to start the English Premier League season, but Arsenal are top of the league, y’all! My internal calendar is all messed up now, lol. But we have some great books for you this week, including an upcoming thriller (also) set in London and written by one of my favorite podcasters — which is saying a lot because I have a really hard time concentrating on podcasts!

Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives is back to terrify readers with his latest novel, The Burn Line. London is suffering through the hottest summer on record when five travelers on the Tube are trapped deep underground one morning. These five people unwittingly become witnesses to something so profoundly disturbing that when they manage to return to their ordinary lives, they can’t remember exactly what it was they saw. All they know is that it was monstrous… and hungry.

But ordinary life isn’t as comfortably normal as they’d been used to. Each of them keeps losing time, and friends abruptly go missing. Something, it seems, is stalking them from the shadows. The five will have to reunite in order to figure out what’s happening to them and its connection to what they saw that day on the train, before something horrific can emerge from below to swallow the whole world.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/21/tantalizing-tales-august-2026-part-three/