Southern Review of Books

Real Southern Lives

By: Spencer Pennington March 27, 2025March 25, 2025

Featureseditor's choiceLeave a Comment

SRB Editor Spencer Pennington rounds up 6 books that embrace what makes the South special.

Cinematic, Realistic, and Of Course, Gothic

By: Jessi Rae Morton March 25, 2025March 26, 2025

ReviewsEmily Carpenter, Fiction, Gothictown1 Comment

Emily Carpenter’s novel, “Gothictown,” offers classic Southern Gothic tropes, characters, and settings with enough twists to keep readers turning pages.

“Alligator Tears” Traces a Zig‑Zag Escape from Poverty

By: Jennette Holzworth March 24, 2025March 22, 2025

ReviewsAligator Tears, Crown, Edgar Gomez, NonfictionLeave a Comment

A review of the memoir “Alligator Tears” by Edgar Gomez.

The Relevant Strangeness of “The Flat Woman: A Novel”

By: Lauren Carpenter March 21, 2025March 20, 2025

ReviewsFiction, The Flat Woman: A Novel, University of Alabama Press, Vanessa SaundersLeave a Comment

Venessa Saunders’ “The Flat Woman” treads the line between reality and absurdity.

Desire and Self-Destruction in “A Good Happy Girl”

By: Kate Valach March 18, 2025March 14, 2025

ReviewsA Good Happy Girl, Catapult, Fiction, Marissa HigginsLeave a Comment

A new entry into the “queer weird-girl lit-fic” canon.

“The Moonlight Healers” is an Empathetic, Meditative Decade-Spanning Debut

By: Mackenzie Manley March 17, 2025March 11, 2025

ReviewsElizabeth Becker, Fiction, Graydon Books, The Moonlight HealersLeave a Comment

A review of Elizabeth Becker’s new novel, “The Moonlight Healers.”

The Best Southern Books of March 2025

By: Chelsea Risley March 14, 2025March 10, 2025

Featuresbest of the month1 Comment

A roundup of some of the best Southern books of March 2025.

New Ecopoetry Pleads for Our Broken yet Enduring Planet

By: Leigh Cuen March 12, 2025May 3, 2025

ReviewsAnn Fisher-Wirth, Attached to the Living World, Laura Gray-Street, Poetry, Review, Trinity University PressLeave a Comment

A review of “Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology,” edited by Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura Gray-Street.

If You Don’t Slow Down, You’ll Miss It: A Closer Look at Life in “No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays in Curiosity”

By: Lauren Carpenter March 11, 2025March 9, 2025

ReviewsLeave a Comment

A review of A. Kendra Greene’s essay collection “No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays in Curiosity.”

“Fragments” Is Filled with Want, Traverses through Heartbreak

By: E.J. Batiste March 10, 2025March 2, 2025

ReviewsFragments of Wasted Devotion, Mia Arias Tsang, Nonfiction, Quilted Press, ReviewLeave a Comment

Tsang has wonderful use of language and metaphor, melding together honest trains of thought and poetic emotion reminiscent of Ocean Vuong.