A quirky and enthralling supernatural tale of family that spans generations.
Perillo’s debut novel follows the struggles of a group of Italian mothers, wives, and witches over multiple centuries in Italy and, later, the Bronx.
Around 1960, 3-year-old Bella suffers a serious injury that leaves her in a comatose state. It may have been an accident—or it may be the consequence of a longstanding curse, as Bella comes from a family of witches who hail from the Italian town of Sabbioneta; they include her great grandmother Rosa and her grandmother Maria. In some ways, the witches’ lives are ordinary, as when teenage Maria vies for the attention of a boy; however, things turn extraordinary when Maria drops a “potent spell” on her rival, Sabrina, with unexpected results. Years later, magic is a factor on the wedding day of Bella’s mother, Lea, after the pregnant bride’s fiancé vanishes, along with maid of honor Lavinia and Lea’s little sister. The novel delves into the lives of other women who have connections to Bella’s lineage, as well; for example, the Russian mother of Maria’s best friend, Teresa, miraculously survives the massacre of her family during the Russian Revolution, and centuries before that, Sabrina’s ancestors find themselves in danger around the time of the Inquisition. Perillo’s novel bounces from character to character, as when references to Maria’s dreams beget the story of the romantic adventure of Sabbioneta’s founder and his duchess wife. As such, the timeline isn’t always linear, but the author’s smooth prose makes it all easy to follow. Lyrical passages propel the narrative forward, and readers may debate whether to take certain passages literally: “He was a sorcerer with kisses so hot they scorched her lips.” The narrative is also enlivened by diverting nods to Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, or The Wizard of Oz, as well as eclectic quotes from such sources as William Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, and Carly Simon. For good measure, Perillo weaves in contemporary references in stories set centuries ago, as when one character repeats “She’s a witch!” in “true Monty Python style.”
A quirky and enthralling supernatural tale of family that spans generations.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2024
ISBN: 9798304259699
Page Count: 276
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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