Her Body Among Animals

Paola Ferrante’s debut short story collection is aptly being published just after the world’s hottest summer on record. An undercurrent of eco-anxiety ties the stories in Her Body Among Animals (Book*hug) together, sitting alongside critiques of patriarchal violence and society’s impossible expectations for mothers. Ferrante’s versatile voice lends a unique mood to each story; her writing is detached yet vulnerable when it takes the perspective of a character who transforms into a spider, then becomes terrified and naive in the narrative of a teenage boy who’s fallen in with a violent crowd. While her characters are often obsessed with science and animals — “Mermaid Girls” features astronomy-loving sisters while “So What if It’s Supposed to Rain” shows a mother fixated on finding and photographing the last remaining bugs in a world on fire — Ferrante avoids cringeworthy, one-dimensional “STEMinist” tropes, instead crafting her characters with raw and complex personalities. Haunting and bizarre in the best way, Her Body Among Animals examines the struggles of women and children against a fantastical background of science fiction and mythical creatures. —Abigail Popple

A Family of Dreamers

In Samantha Nock’s A Family of Dreamers (Talonbooks), the grandeur of nature is a reminder that a majestic world greater than our individual experiences and feelings underlies everything. The Cree-Métis writer and poet’s debut collection shifts its focus between the deeply personal and the things that transcend the self, in poems about mental health, trauma and healing, as well as the Earth, the spiritual, and our relationships with communities and ancestors. Nock’s lines are careful and unrushed, written in easy, direct language that rings clear and succinct. Feelings of grief, sadness and insecurity frequently surface, offset by occasional bursts of humour — like in a discussion of an unsatisfying hookup with a straight-edge vegan, or an explanation of how to make your bitchy traits more palatable by blaming them on astrology. Though its emotional qualities are sure to resonate with readers, at its core the collection is intimately, unapologetically personal; the poems seem as though they’re for the poet first and foremost, and we’re simply allowed to peer into the process, a privilege we need to make sure not to squander. —Nour Abi-Nakhoul

Daughter

In Claudia Dey’s Daughter (Penguin Random House), playwright Mona Dean’s life is inescapably intertwined with the whims of her father Paul — a dangerously charming, once-famous author who compulsively betrays the important women in his life. Driven by his insecurities, Paul puts his wife, his ex-wife, Mona and her sisters in a constellation of furious grudges against each other. When Paul’s infidelity breaks Mona’s family apart for a second time, she’s the one held responsible, labelled a co-­conspirator and shunned by the family. As she begins to build her career and recover from a tragic personal loss, she’s prompted to reconsider her familial relationships and reevaluate the ways disagreements and impenetrable grudges have defined her early life. Claudia Dey’s wry, passionate and biting characters drive the novel’s heartfelt explorations of parenting, coming-of-age and kinship. With humour and insight, Daughter asks us to consider what it means to show up for each other and why we do it time and time again. —Jeevan Sangha

Roaming

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s Roaming (Drawn & Quarterly) invites you to, well, roam New York alongside Canadian college students Dani, Zoe and Fiona. They’ve come to the city in an attempt to discover all that it has to offer, including Times Square scammers and overpriced tourist paraphernalia. The trip marks the reunion of Dani and Zoe, high school best friends who have just spent a year at separate universities. But while Zoe happily goes along with whatever is in Dani’s meticulously-planned itinerary, Dani’s new friend and classmate Fiona acts like she’s above it all, stoking a simmering tension between the three that threatens to ruin not just their trip, but their friendships. Though you’ve likely visited New York — through media if not in person — Roaming makes you feel as though you’re discovering it anew. This is thanks to the illustrations, rendered in a soothing, minimal colour palette and filled with loving details. The simple yet succinct dialogue, especially between background characters, also brings the city to life on the page. The result is a feeling of being transported to wherever the girls are roaming, whether it’s Grand Central Station or just a Uniqlo in Soho. —Zeahaa Rehman

Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture Is Failing Women

In Lisa Whittington-Hill’s debut essay collection, Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture Is Failing Women (Véhicule Press), Courtney Love looms large. She appears in five chapters and serves as a focal point in two: one in which Whittington-Hill outlines female musicians’ overlooked contributions to the genesis of grunge, and another that compellingly argues that Love should be hailed as the “ultimate spokesperson” for the generation shaped by that genre. That Love doesn’t receive this credit is, according to Whittington-Hill, a consequence of how our cultural memory is skewed by a misogyny that reaches into the present day. The collection shows how Love’s trajectory, as the “original tabloid target” whose addiction and suffering were reduced to front-page fodder, and as an artist whose work was eclipsed by the success of the men she influenced, mirrors the treatment of other female pop culture stars like Lindsay Lohan, Winona Ryder and Amy Winehouse. Though the analysis sometimes focuses on the cruelty of tabloids, which have lost some sway over the years and may not be as much of a cultural barometer as they once were, Whittington-Hill’s essays lay bare how sexist and vulture-like media practices have destroyed many famous women’s careers. —Noah Ciubotaru