Shadows and Premonitions #1

Scottish zines are thin on the ground. Let alone personal ones. Let alone personal queer ones. This debut is compact: while its A6 format may be slightly smudgy in a couple of places, it's not enough to obscure either the typed or the handwritten content.

Our narrator shows us the USA as experienced by an outsider – complete with the bonding potential of co-ed fraternities. She then takes us back to Edinburgh, where she navigates a history of break-ups as well as an undefined, insomniac and alcohol-fuelled relationship with a (queer) boy. Descriptions of her home city and the feelings it invokes are engaging and poetic, but she concludes that it will shortly be time to leave. Hopefully she'll take this project with her, because I'm looking forward to reading more of her adventures. [Trevor Mawhinney]