Making Karen Russell Blush

Thu 27 Mar 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Karen Russell is out on tour with her new novel The Antidote wrote a great list of book recommendations for Elle. They format it so that each book is finishing the sentence “The book that . . .” and for this one the first answer was Kristen Arnett’s forthcoming novel Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One and the second part was Alaya’s story — linked below:

. . . has a sex scene that will make you blush:

Also, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawa’ii” from her stunning collection, Reconstruction, is one of my favorite short stories. It’s about a prison camp where humans are harvested by vampires. (I can imagine some readers might have a lively debate with me here about what qualifies as a sex scene.) “Blush” is too mild a verb for what happens when I reread it. I don’t know what verb to use for a horror-blush. It’s definitely more of a “run for your eternal life” flush than a dewy glow. More meaty red than Maybelline.<