An immersive, behind-the-scenes, for-fans-only effort.
A journalistic exploration into a popular reality television phenomenon.
Since its inception in 2015, says Peele, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, British TV’s Love Island UK and its 2019 American spinoff, Love Island USA, have captured massive audience attention with tropical island, luxury villa locations; attractive singles; and the contestant end-game goal of finding love. It’s an addictive combination and “interactive as a video game,” Peele writes. The author dynamically breaks down the six-week summertime structure of the program (the taped British version, as well as the American one, which is filmed in real time, six nights a week), then dissects the players, the provocative group challenges, the spicy melodrama, the reunions, and the critical viewer voting process as it unfolds season to season. From the unstable messiness of Season 1 to the franchise’s modernized, glammy iterations of the past few years, Peele doesn’t miss an evolutionary upgrade. And while it’s not technically necessary to have a rudimentary working knowledge of the show to enjoy her dogged research, the narrative is decidedly fan-centric. Dedicated superfan communities will particularly savor the season-by-season, highlight-reel recaps that Peele delivers in chapters capturing the pivotal climactic moments that kept viewers glued to their screens. The author culled pages of off-screen details and insider perspectives from hundreds of interviews with show producers, crew members, executives, presenters, and “Islanders” themselves. She also toured the villa in real time in 2025 and made actual control-room visits to observe how producers edit interactions to maximize the heft of dramatic arcs, break-ups, “crash-outs,” and romantic shifts, especially when one of the show’s “bombshells” arrived on set to replace a departing cast member who has been eliminated by viewers. Peele scrutinizes the moral, sociological. and psychological impacts of the show in terms of its effects on viewers and participants alike, but her focus is mainly kept on the episodes and the players, which is exactly what readers will expect and appreciate.
An immersive, behind-the-scenes, for-fans-only effort.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781668205594
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
