Reviews, etc.

Bad Ideas - Awards & Recognition

Together We Read Canada Selection 2020

Ottawa Book Award Nominee 2020

Winner, Markham Reads 2019

Review Highlights

"Funny, binge-worthy, and wrapped with little gems about love and family."      -ALU Book Club

"Bad Ideas is all heart, packed with humour, vivid and memorable writing, and unforgettable characters."     - Open Book Ontario

"An unusual story of both familial and romantic love, the strange dreams humans have, and the cost and benefits of loyalty."     -Kirkus Reviews

"Bad Ideas is a great read, a well-balanced mix of pathos and humour ... The way Ms. Marston brings all the threads of each character’s past into the present is a marvel of writing that makes Bad Ideas well worth reading. Put it on your Summer Reading List. Recommended."    - The Miramichi Reader

"Many novels claim to illuminate working class lives but this one feel loving and authentic...Bad Ideas is fun and playful, always wanting to entertain, to make us feel and see through the eyes of these different people."      - Prism International

"This book is delicious -- I ate it right up... Using her flawed characters and quick wit, Missy Marston cleverly tells a moving story disguised as entertainment. (Mercy will win you over almost immediately.) This cast of forgotten characters living in a run-down town in eastern Ontario only want the same things we all do."     - Naomi MacKinnon, Consumed by Ink

"I love being surprised by a book - not knowing where a story is going to go. Missy Marston's new novel Bad Ideas was just such a book. I was immediately caught up in the first few pages and ended up finishing the book in one sitting."     - A Bookworm's World


The Love Monster - Awards & Recognition

Winner, 2013 Ottawa Book Award, English Fiction

Finalist, 2013 CBC Bookie Awards – New Kid on the Block

Quill & Quire Readers’ Pick 2012

Finalist, 2012 CBC Readers’ Choice for ScotiaBank Giller Prize

Review Highlights

“To call Marston’s humour wry is barely a start. The twist in her comedy is fuelled by merciless observation, unvarnished glimpses into the human appetite for misery... As the story gets weirder, it becomes both funnier and unexpectedly moving. “      -The Globe and Mail

“There is hope, humour, and wry commentary on how we perceive the world and each other, but deeply buried under it all is that kernel of sadness, and Marston isn’t afraid to excavate it. In doing so, she creates characters that resonate and actively engage the reader in the search for hope and redemption. “ 

                                                                                                   -Quill and Quire

“Such generosity is surprisingly rare – too often writers rely on straw men and caricatures to set off their main character’s authenticity. But every potential “type” in this book, from the kooky mom to the loser boss to the uptight Christian girl, is shown, finally, to be a person worthy of sympathy and respect… Marston’s prose is unfailingly charming.”             -Montreal Review of Books

“A comic first novel by an irreverent Canadian.”     -Commentary

“You sure have chutzpah!”                   -Margaret Atwood

 

Select Appearances

The Word on the Street, Toronto 

Thin Air, Winnipeg

Plan 99 Fiction, Ottawa International Writers Festival

Robson Reading Series, Vancouver

Save the Bookstore Day, Ottawa

Launches in Ottawa, Kingston, Montreal, Toronto