A Globe and Mail Spring 2026 Read • A Heather's Pick

“It’s such a good book—Gibson’s own good eye on things is the core of its energy, working beneath every surface ‘like underwater lamps on television programs about the deep sea.’” —Ali Smith, author of Gliff

“Terrific: witty, ironic, unnerving, stylish, and funny, very funny. The stories are wonderfully written but it’s Gibson’s sensibility that’s most striking. Reading The Good Eye is like going for a walk with a charming and cultivated guide who knows her way around some of the most vivid parts of Hell. It’s the best first collection of stories I’ve read in years.” —André Alexis, author of Fifteen Dogs

“Wise, seductive, funny, and psychedelic, The Good Eye is written in gloriously precise and tactile prose, illuminating the antechambers and edges of life—apparitions, fakes, visitations by ghosts, rodents, and stray lovers—where both threat and insight glistens. Hopeful and renegade like Joy Williams and with a sly Mona Lisa smile, Jess Gibson moves between a high-altitude view and the very muscle of life to uncover what fluorescence it might hold. This collection took my breath away. A quietly, cumulatively, supernaturally brilliant debut.” —Claudia Dey, author of Daughter

“The stories in this bewitching collection begin in the known world before tilting towards mystery and rebellion—a book full of pleasure and surprise.” —Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists and Long Distance

“The Good Eye is the kind of collection I’m always looking for and never seem to quite find. The power in these beautifully understated stories is in the concision—and precision—of the language. No gimmicks here just direct, clear-eyed prose. And moving, human struggles on the page.” —Peter Orner, author of The Gossip Columnist's Daughter

“The Good Eye is an astoundingly accomplished collection of stories. Unsettling, forensically observed and written in devastatingly pristine prose, these stories burrowed their way under my skin and lingered there. Gibson does not write like a debut author. These are modern stories imbued with a sense of timelessness.” —Jan Carson, author of Quickly, While They Still Have Horses

“There’s more than a hint of the carnival in these deliciously twisty stories by Jess Gibson. This is a world peopled by amicable card sharps, con artists, forgers and general hoodwinkers who administer their own brand of crooked justice. Their victims are faithless, vain, blind to themselves, often complicit in their own undoing. Mischievous, sumptuous and quietly ruthless, The Good Eye enchants with a deft sleight of hand even as it unsettles.” —Bernie McGill, author of The Butterfly Cabinet

“Playful, sharp and stealthy, these stories trouble appearances, disrupt perspective, and flicker with understated humour.” —K.J. Orr, author of Light Box

“This is a beguiling and compelling collection of stories that never outstays its welcome. Like the best sort of party guest, Gibson knows exactly when to exit and each of these totally immersive stories leaves you wanting more. A fantastically crafted collection—I devoured it.” —Abi Hynes, author of Monstrous Longing

“Lovers of interiority, may I humbly present to you the work of Jess Gibson?. . . . In her debut collection The Good Eye, Gibson turns her gaze to the indigestible nature of the self. . . . When subjected to observation, the selves of Gibson’s characters twist, turn, and transform. . . . One of the pleasures of Gibson’s work is its suggestion that observation fundamentally changes the nature of that which is observed. Likewise, that which is observed fundamentally changes the observer.” —Molly McGhee, author of Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind

“In the masterful debut story collection from Gibson, characters confront eerie and unexpected situations. . . . Throughout, Gibson builds impactful stories out of richly evoked settings and airtight psychological insights. The author exhibits remarkable range in this inspired and deeply accomplished work.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Twelve smart, understated stories about uncanny and magical moments in everyday life.” —Kirkus Reviews

“What unites the 12 tales is their amorphous undercurrent of disquiet. Tightly and mischievously told, they reveal Gibson as a master of capturing relationships as they begin to fray.” —Monocle