Carole V. Bell
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(She/Her)
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Popular culture and politics, race and media, books, film and television
🇯🇲Critic & researcher. UNC J-School PhD. Books, TV, Film & Democracy. Words: @NPRBooks @NYTimes @LATimes @WashingtonPost @BostonGlobe @Indiewire @TheAtlantic
Articles by Carole V. Bell
Queen of Lombard Street
Lisa Kleypas’ much anticipated, long-awaited Queen of Lombard Street is equal parts swoon and rage inducing, weaving a triumphant love story into a riveting, meticulously researched tale of money, sex and greed. The anchor of the story is a stunningly unconventional yet historically accurate Victorian woman. Before she turns 30, Reina Martin is already a published economist with articles in Bankers’ Magazine and a trained lawyer, though not allowed to practice.
Coming of age in 1920s Britain, Olivia yearns for freedom. Her father, a closeted actor, and his longtime lover have established a life of quiet respectability in the country, their security dependent on conformity and discretion. When Olivia meets wild, working-class Tamsin, she can no longer contain her desire for a more liberated life—but in grand, gothic tradition, their love tilts into obsession, and the possibility for violence lurks within both women.
Unspeakable Things
In Elizabeth Hand’s seductive, slow-burning gothic novel Unspeakable Things, 18-year-old Olivia Madden enjoys a privileged yet precarious life in the 1920s. She’s the neglected daughter of Peter, a closeted, once famous actor whose career has long been in decline and now lives at Kerrith Hall, a rented, understaffed estate on the Cornish moors.
The Hocus Pocus Handbook
When Thea de Winter ruins a pivotal festival by freeing wild fae “entertainment” from their cruel confinement, the Winter Court’s key enforcer, Kerboros, is tasked with capturing the untamable and beautiful changeling. It’s in neither Kerboros’ interest nor power to deny those orders, no matter how distasteful. Despite his veneer of authority, much like Thea, Kerboros has long been subject to House Winter’s whims.
Book review of Under Story by Chloe Benjamin
In Chloe Benjamin’s exquisitely imagined and emotionally rich Under Story, a woman moves to Antarctica in search of a fresh start and finds far more than she expected. It’s an extreme choice. The icebound landmass where McMurdo Station is situated sees “less rain than the Sahara” and is so remote that airplane travel is restricted for months at a time. But researcher Laurel Salter is desperate, and a radical move feels necessary.
Book review of The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A mediocre matrimonial scammer down to his last peso meets his match when he tries to con a hardened spinster in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Intrigue. In 1943 Mexico City, Ulises Linares is a floundering 29-year-old con man with silver just beginning to line his locks.
The Great Wherever
Shannon Sanders’ first novel, The Great Wherever, is an ingenious meditation on inheritances material, spiritual and emotional, and a worthy successor to her much-lauded short story collection, Company. Aubrey Lamb has long felt like the underdog in her own story, the problematic black sheep of a successful Black family. A year after her father’s death, while her older sister Bellamy now occupies their childhood home with her dutiful husband and adorable children, Aubrey is flailing.
Shannon Sanders’ ‘The Great Wherever’ tells the story of the century
Shannon Sanders crafted her first novel, The Great Wherever—one of the most anticipated debuts of 2026—in the cracks between motherhood and a challenging day job. On the surface, Sanders’ path to publication seems charmed. Her lauded short story collection, Company, was published by the elite indie Graywolf Press, and won the Los Angeles Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
The Missed Connection
Second chances are a surefire romance staple, but like most Tia Williams creations, The Missed Connection comes with several twists. At the heart of this funny New York City rom-com lies a dilemma: Is Sasha Cruz’s one who got away a wealthy man of mystery, or the scruffy hot detective she hired to find him? Former private investigator Wes Dane once saved hotshot casting director Sasha Cruz from a stalker, but their messy attraction complicated the encounter in a way that left both parties shaken.
Book review of Score by Kennedy Ryan
Running parallel to the events in Kennedy Ryan’s first installment of her Hollywood Renaissance series, Reel, second-chance romance Score is a powerful companion piece that shines on its own. Like Reel, most of Score’s narrative centers on the making of a biopic about the (fictional) Harlem Renaissance singer Dessi Blue, retelling the story behind the scenes from the perspectives of screenwriter Verity Hill and composer Wright Thelonious “Monk” Bellamy.
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is a powerhouse. It’s a bracing story of abuse and protection bolstered by virtuosic writing that is simultaneously spare and poetic, subtle and brutal. At the center of this striking literary debut are two Catholic schoolgirls, the daughters of an Indian mother and a white American father who works on oil rigs and is rarely home. It’s the 1980s, and Georgie and Agatha are isolated and slightly adrift in their starkly white rural Wyoming town.
Interview with Anna Kovatcheva, author of She Made Herself a Monster
Anna Kovatcheva’s debut novel, She Made Herself a Monster, follows a con artist vampire hunter whose fake rituals serve a real emotional purpose for the villagers she fools. We asked the author, who was born in Bulgaria, about the folklore she drew on for this story, her journey to publication and the enduring appeal of the vampire. This is a fantastic debut. What sparked the story’s creation, and how long did it take to craft from the initial kernel of an idea to the final draft?
30 years ago, 'Waiting to Exhale' was the blockbuster Hollywood didn't anticipate
Many (predominantly white) critics weren't impressed with the movie Waiting to Exhale when it opened in 1995, but moviegoers turned up in droves, making it one of the year's most profitable blockbusters. In a year in review, The Los Angeles Times dubbed the film a "social phenomenon," and the NAACP lavished it with Image Awards for outstanding motion picture, lead actress and more.
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