A married man (generously called Adonis) engages in various sexual escapades with a parade of different women. Readers begin the story knowing that Adonis has died, and the author uses a variety of different formats to tell the story of his downfall. These include poetry, short prose, quotes (some of which are in French), and scripts (for both screen and stage). Each section is paired with a particular song that is meant to “run parallel to the works but not in real time, not in sync.” These songs are listed in small blocks throughout, while a separate companion book titled Crystalline Green includes a playlist with additional poems, plays, and song tracks that accompany Adonis’ journey. The songs range from mainstream (“Run This Town” by JAY-Z) to more obscure (“A Forest” by Clan of Xymox). Characters and scenarios throughout both volumes include the mundane (employees working at an office) and the fantastical (God massaging someone’s feet; the Devil surfing). Booras occasionally crafts some truly thought-provoking passages: “This is why I prefer foreplay to sex. This is why I write more than I live.” Unfortunately, there’s not a relatable character to be found; Adonis’ immaturity is downright alienating. While Thaïs, his married colleague and “true love” is in the hospital, for example, Adonis explains that he cheated on her because, “You were sick.” Intense eroticism (“I penetrate myself / so I may feel what you feel”) alternates with performative introspection (“Have I not invented this pain? / This cock that bends / toward sadness / like a flower made heavy by rain?”). This results in a text that’s essentially an overblown ode to maleness. The experimental form is unique—but, like its main character, the book does little to endear itself to readers.

Brielle Petitfour dreams of becoming a renowned chef, serving up food from her Haitian culture to Miami’s upper crust via her elite supper club. But she’s also a zombie—or a zonbi, as they’re known in Creole. Brielle’s immigrant mother suffers chronic pain from an injury sustained while working for the white Banks family, the same people whose company makes the medicine she needs to keep her pain at bay. But now Mummy’s insurance is refusing to cover it. Then Brielle is offered a summer fellowship—with generous family health insurance benefits—by the outrageously wealthy and greedy Bankses, who make this proposal in order to smooth over a situation involving Brielle that’s a potential “PR nightmare.” Brielle accepts: She can help her mother and, with her zombie gifts, maybe even get revenge. Creole phrases and Haitian folklore are woven into the story, adding to the atmosphere. Brielle’s five sisters back in Haiti serve as a sort of Greek chorus, and their interspersed chapters fill in the rich backstory. The authors have a lot of important things to say about generational wealth, racism, capitalism, and class, but the rules of Brielle’s monstrous zombie powers remain unclear, and the many themes that are explored limit the deeper development of Brielle as a character.

November, 1895. Investigators Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn venture to the lively Shoreditch district of London in the middle of the night in search of the infamous Dawn Gang, which has been burglarizing local shops. The duo gets some helpful intel from Dutch, a streetwise beggar. As if on cue, Llewelyn is struck in the head and a fight with the gang ensues, in which “the Marquess of Queensbury Rules had no part.” After gang members spot the police and flee, Barker and Llewelyn are hauled in and roughly questioned. Locating Dutch seems essential to their exoneration. A bizarre coda to the episode comes via Chief Detective Inspector Poole, a friend who reports that all the gang members have been arrested and have hanged themselves in their cells. Case reluctantly closed, if not explained. Meanwhile, Barker and Llewelyn are engaged by stuffy Lord Danvers to discreetly locate the missing sister of his fragile, distraught wife. Before she vanished, May Evans spoke vaguely about leaving London and going to Rome. Barely has this investigation begun when the sleuths are drawn back to the Tenderloin by an explosion in a railway tunnel. Barker and Llewelyn’s shaggy 16th adventure is held together by Llewelyn’s engaging narration, which combines the formality of Dr. Watson with the smirk of Archie Goodwin. And of course, the colorful Dutch makes a return, linking the cases.

Melia Raymond is so eager to support her 17-year-old grandson, Droid, né Andrew Morgan, as he enters rehab for his addiction to alcohol and drugs that she tags along with him on the intake bus, allowing herself to be checked in for her own nonexistent addiction. Her decision is a serious mistake, since, under the stewardship of Beatrice Dottson, Best Way Health and Wellness is nothing but a scam designed to rake in government dollars for treatments it has no intention of providing. In fact, many of the guards who make sure the clients surrender their cell phones and stay put till Best Way is ready to turn them loose actively push more liquor on them. Their time-tested strategy doesn’t work for Droid, who promptly vanishes, leaving Mrs. Raymond to pair up with his widowed father, Greg Morgan, to search far and wide for him. Meanwhile, Officer Bernadette Manuelito of the Navajo Police faces a grave complication before the promised high-profile visit of U.S. Secretary of Energy Savanah Cooper: Members of Citizens United To Save the Planet, a ferocious activist group, have settled in at the elderly Yazzies’ property, building an illegal sweat lodge and planning what’s clearly going to be a criminal protest against the scourge of uranium extraction from Native lands. Since the two stories never intersect, their sum total is less a novel than a pair of novellas shuffled together in alternating chapters.

Weiss notes that Caitlin Clark’s intensity sometimes results in her losing her temper; she also touches on the racial double standard that some have claimed to see in her mega-celebrity. Still, the author dwells much more on the positive, from her subject’s strong work ethic, her willingness to be a team player, and her already-spectacular achievements on the boards to her electrifying effect on the popularity of women’s basketball. Clark played on boys’ teams from age 5, declared her intention to play in the WNBA in third grade, and went on to become NCAA Division 1 basketball’s highest scorer of any sex—her example may daunt fans hoping to follow directly in her footsteps. Still, for those inspired to try, the author fills readers in on basic basketball skills and strategies that are applicable at any level of play. She also offers a sprinkling of biographical details and exciting game summaries (up to the July 2024 WNBA All Star Game), enhanced by many big, dramatic action photos. Thumbnail introductions to other women who have starred at the collegiate, Olympic, and professional levels widen the general angle of view, as do closing lists of WNBA champs and MVPs.