Eco-fiction whose environmentalist message is somewhat stronger than its storytelling.
Viola’s novel examines the effect of environmental issues on communities and interpersonal relationships.
West York, Kentucky, is a financially struggling town, near the Illinois and Indiana borders, that was the site of a deadly underground coal mine collapse in 1994. Afterward, the mineral rights were sold to a strip-mining company that contaminated the air and groundwater, leading to a local cancer surge. In 2014, Ecological Resources, an energy company, comes to town to exploit the New Albany Shale Basin, which covers “perhaps one of the largest gas reserves known to science.” They offer lucrative jobs on a large, odorous, disruptive fracking project on the banks of the Ohio River. Lionel Boone, the only miner to survive the mine collapse, also lost his wife due to the effects of strip mining, and he becomes concerned about history repeating itself. He contacts Earth First!, a radical eco-defense group, hoping that they can find out what’s going on with the project. Thirty-one-year-old Eris Carroll, an Earth First! volunteer who dropped out of the University of North Carolina, travels to West York, and over the course of three months, she helps Boone and other concerned townspeople understand the fracking process and raise resistance. They come up against the mayor, the sheriff, and others who see fracking as key to the economic revival of the area. Although Eris’ time in West York is cut short due to family concerns, the friendship that develops between her and Boone helps them to reconnect with others. Another storyline follows lifelong West York resident Cass Estill Taylor, whose trauma propels her into action beyond civil disobedience. Small-town intrigue and gossip propels a good deal of the action of the story. The book includes extensive, informative descriptions and explanations of fracking (“Engineers used tons of water, sand, and chemicals to force ‘fluid’ through miles of piping to fracture what were once impenetrable shale basins that impeded access to large pockets of natural gas”). While the novel also importantly spends time addressing the political sway that Big Energy has over the interests of individual people, all this exposition has the effect of somewhat overshadowing the interpersonal relationships at the novel’s center.
Eco-fiction whose environmentalist message is somewhat stronger than its storytelling.Pub Date: June 9, 2022
ISBN: 9781684339600
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2024
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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