Welcome to the Party, VQR!

Lisa Peet at Open Letters Monthly / Likefire blog on Millions contributor Sonya Chung's novel Long for This World: "When a novel, particularly a debut novel, is referred to as 'ambitious,' there’s usually an implicit 'but' present... Chung takes on the dynamics of family—what draws it together and what pulls it apart—through the eyes of a number of players, male and female, old and young, Korean and Korean-American. Both her subject matter and her approach are ambitious, to say the least. The only 'but' in my reaction, however, is but she pulls it off—and admirably."  Read the full review.

What if Hamlet were a punk who skateboarded over Ophelia? At The Toast, Mallory Ortberg imagines Shakespeare's Hamlet with a teenage dirtbag cast complete with hilarious illustrations by Matt Lubchansky. "im going to the cemetery to touch skulls." We hope this becomes a regular series.