Suspended Heart

“Magical realism at its finest. Great work by Heather Fowler. Recommended.” – Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life “It’s a dazzling collection of magical realism, from boys made of clay and girls made of razor blades, to Philip Dick-esque replicants, to vampires and heroic parrots.” – Jen Michalski, author of Close Encounters “Common emotions that come forth as literal components in the characters’ lives are too good to miss. The author’s fabulist style, both sarcastic and charitable, is one to be admired.” – Melanie Page, American Book Review “Fowler’s descriptions are exquisite, and her stories absorbing. Her fabulist elements intertwine with reality to create allegorical narratives that expose deeper truths about men and women, about humanity’s common fixations. Her heroines are strong, but searching and consistently surprising. Fowler’s stories are like spells: Through words alone, beautiful imagery, tremendous substance, and poignant feeling become palpably real.” – Savannah Schroll Guz, author of American Soma “Fowler’s writing itself is beautiful—her sentences are as varied as her characters, and the images she carefully paints echo Francis Bacon’s statements about beauty: there’s nothing pretty that isn’t at least slightly bizarre in some way. This strangeness never hinders Fowler’s work, and instead, increases the world she so vividly introduces us to, making her plots more believable, and just that much more fun to read. Her language doesn’t flow, but laps, much like Minnow Lake, at the reader’s feet, slowly drawing them into her sphere.” – Stephanie Johnson, Ampersand Review “Sometimes, just sometimes, from the scrolls of work I read online, I stumble across a story different enough to make me remember a name. Heather Fowler’s such a writer. I encountered her work a few years ago online. It’s almost impossible not to. Fresh, vivid, her prose is fluid. It flows like a river. Never static. The work moves characters and perceptions. The heart is revealed and swept away. A single can story can be strange, beautiful, moving, dark, then funny. Stories that may seem quirky on the surface of subject matter have layers and deceptive depth... Such fearlessness is reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates, yet the work is surprising moving and full of humour.” – Angela Readman, The Short Review “Heather Fowler is Kafka in drag, an American Marquez... What really wins the reader over, though, is the way she tells the story.” – Bonnie ZoBell, Gently Read Literature “The stories in Suspended Heart have made for some of the most twisted, exciting reading I have had in a very long time. They are read with a zealousness and momentum that is like a solid relationship, improving with age and with each re-read. I find these stories to take the idea of love and blast away any cliché notions that love is an ordinary thing. Bitter hearts will be relieved, hardened hearts will soften, and dangerous hearts will finally use caution. Each story is fresh and crisp and offers a new angle on the age-old ideas of romance and sex. The themes of lust and courageous love are never dulled by overly dramatic tales or melodramatic fantasies. The voice Fowler uses is real, and in my opinion, these stories are some of the best tales of love and its consuming ideas that have been written in many years.” – Zach Fishel, Girls With Insurance