An often unsettling story, but one that genre fans may find compelling.
Auswat’s queer romance novel centers on a high school senior’s crush on his teacher and its potentially destructive consequences.
In the (fictional) city of Point Liberty, 18-year-old Liam is nearing graduation and struggling with a serious crush on Mr. Hilton, his 30-something English teacher who’s married to a woman. The novel opens with a line that shows Liam’s intense, nearly obsessive infatuation: “I can’t believe he’s wearing that cologne again. Today of all days. A test day.” The developing dynamic between student and teacher is slow and deliberate—from a perplexing run-in at a school urinal to a tutoring session at Mr. Hilton’s that ends with Liam secretly watching his instructor in the shower. The novel slow-burns toward a physical encounter—and doesn’t stop there. As the power dynamic between the pair changes, complicated by outside pressure from Hilton’s wife, Dixie, the dangerous, uncertain ramifications of the affair become clearer: Which one of them will ultimately be destroyed by the relationship? The first-person narration is one of the book’s greatest strengths, with Liam’s voice dually capturing teenage angst and a credible coming-of-age consciousness. The student’s friendship with Lucy, his only friend, provides occasional grounding while also serving as a reminder that a sense of isolation dominates the atmosphere. After all, Liam’s feeling of alienation is what compounds his obsession and leaves him vulnerable; most of his fellow students apparently want nothing to do with a kid who has alcoholic parents and a sister with Down syndrome. Antigay slurs, ableist remarks, and other forms of abuse from other characters circulate through the prose, often without response. This situation adds a psychological dimension to Liam’s attraction to someone who seems to be a safe adult to lean on. Certain lines land strangely, though (“You look like you were in the Holocaust”), and a plot thread involving nonconsensual photography emerges that some may find triggering.
An often unsettling story, but one that genre fans may find compelling.Pub Date: June 11, 2025
ISBN: 9798282286274
Page Count: 322
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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