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Conor Hultman review

"Cole Phillips’ Standish Blue is a haunting, lyrical meditation on intimacy, loss, and what makes life worth living. Using gorgeous language, Phillips illuminates a world that is as unforgettable as the characters within it, characters who stayed in my heart long after I finished reading. This story is a gift in shades of autumn gold and twilight blue, one that reveals how the quietest of moments can be the most profound, and how two people can indelibly mark each other’s journeys."

— Catherine Kyle, author of Shelter In Place (2019)


“Gorgeous and possessed. Cole Phillips writes afterimages on the present, making words reservoirs for time, a house a body for a ghost."

— Ashley Mayne, author of Tiger (2015)


"Like Danielewski's legendary house whose interior is larger than its outside, Cole Phillips's Standish Blue swells far beyond the dimensions framed by its covers. Venturing past its threshold, we might find its interiors inviting—its sentences shimmering, its details richly rendered, a structure impeccably wrought—but this only makes its uncanny hidden recesses that much more disconcerting. If you're anything like me, you'll find yourself haunted by these characters and hungering for Phillips's next offering."

— Tim Horvath, author of the New Hampshire Literary Award winner Understories (2012)