Profane, insane, hilarious, disgusting—and unexpectedly moving.
She's dead but she still won't leave: a mother-in-law horror story.
Abby and Ralph Lamb were just a sweet, ordinary couple getting ready to start a family when Ralph's mother, Laura, turned their world into a living hell, first by insisting they move in with her, then by slitting her wrists in the basement. Even the resources Ralph downloaded from the Borderline Parent website can't help them with the version of Laura they have to deal with now—a vengeful ghost, a rampaging motherthing. Abby knows all too well about motherthings, having read the research on orphaned lab monkeys who need maternal affection so badly that a rolled-up pair of socks can do the trick and having resorted in her own youth to cuddling a corduroy couch while her own worthless fuckhole of a parent (get ready for lots of strong language and fecal imagery in this book) was busy paying attention to "Todd or Doug or Randy." Though Abby tried desperately to please her, Laura is as cruel in death as she was in life, and now the usually adoring Ralph is withdrawing into his own fog of hallucinatory despair. The only person who's still giving Laura any love at all is Mrs. Bondy, a nonverbal patient at the nursing home where she works—and if Mrs. Bondy's horrible daughter goes through with her plan to move her to a different facility, Abby will just have to kill her and serve Janet à la king for dinner. Hogarth's way with words enlivens every page of this psycho romp, whether describing its unlikely hero, Cud, "a fourteen-year-old Pomeranian, which hung from her hip like a colostomy bag and always had a look on his face like you’d forgotten to wish him a happy birthday," or a drawer full of plastic bags: "when one is pulled, they must all sing the crackling songs of their ancestors." Her fearlessness and utter lack of inhibition animate the desperate longing and bitter trauma at the heart of this ghost story, administered with a steady drip of comic relief.
Profane, insane, hilarious, disgusting—and unexpectedly moving.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-46702-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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