Supportive friends brave doomsday in this profound and comical tale.
Roommates find themselves in a unique position to save Earth from an imminent apocalypse in Bertocci’s speculative fiction novel.
Twenty-something bartender Monroe Fisher awakens one Monday morning with an “expanded” vision; she gets a vibrant, too-real glimpse of the future and witnesses the absolute devastation of the world and the end of humanity. She’s understandably shaken and repeatedly tells her artist roommate, Bristol Volavaunt, that the two need to leave the unspecified American metropolis where they live. They go to see Bristol’s old college pal Xochitl Clarisdon Carlyle, who studies dreams and seems to think Monroe is psychologically disturbed. Exhibit A: A mysterious being, whom the women take to calling the Queen, occasionally speaks through Monroe and reveals vague details of a prophecy foretelling the destruction of the Earth. Monroe, of course, doesn’t want this to happen and is convinced that she and Bristol can save everyone on the planet. They simply need to come up with a plan before their time runs out (in no more than two days). This gives rise to endless questions: Is Bristol the muse that Monroe believes she needs? Is Bristol putting her faith in a roommate who’s mentally unwell? Should Monroe call in sick to work? Along the way, the two good friends run into a few eccentric locals who may be able to help out (or just consistently get in the way). Perhaps the solution to the crisis lies in a ritual that they haven’t quite worked out yet but which definitely needs to happen on a rooftop somewhere.
Bertocci’s lighthearted tale alternates between a third-person narrative and individual perspectives from Bristol, Monroe, and Xochitl. Each of the trio’s accounts sounds like a testimony of sorts (at one point, Monroe complains, “I’m not on trial here and I won’t be accused of anything. We agreed to cooperate, to help you”). This approach keeps the story moving at a steady beat and allows for plenty of jokes (there are copious reminders that the women are generally clueless about all the goings-on, as when Bristol bluntly affirms, “I don’t even know, like, what I’m doing”). Readers don’t know any more than the characters do, and scenes often consist of the roommates debating their next move from their “one-bedroom dump,” aimlessly traveling through the city, or arguing with the perpetually skeptical Xochitl. The situation’s spiritual implications (does God have a part in any of this?) monopolize conversations and first-person perspectives as characters tend to wax philosophical: “If people need God, that’s their right. But don’t pretend God needs you back. I mean, mitigate the gall to presume that omnipotent divinity is sitting on some cloud to await your adulation.” Still, the story’s good-natured tone rarely falters; the ladies repeatedly shush a “slightly annoying” male character who has an apparent romantic interest in Monroe, and these moments are more amusing than spiteful. Best of all, Bristol and Monroe exemplify a strong friendship throughout as two women who choose to spend the potential end of the world with one another.
Supportive friends brave doomsday in this profound and comical tale.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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