An intriguing exploration of art and wealth spearheaded by messy, engrossing characters.
Art, money, and ambition collide, first at a prestigious college and again in New York City.
In 2011, 19-year-old Louisa Arceneaux feels out of place at Wrynn College of Art in the fictional New England town of Stonewater. The Louisiana native is attending Wrynn on scholarship, and most of her wealthy peers initially dismiss her paintings as “Southern Gothic Lite.” Louisa’s roommate is the icy and beautiful Karina Piontek, daughter of rich yet unhappy art collectors, who had a mental breakdown last semester before returning suspiciously quickly to Wrynn. Karina and Louisa, both queer women, are drawn to each other, first as fellow creatives, then as friends, then lovers, and Karina becomes the model for Louisa’s new series of gruesome and beautiful paintings. Karina is also sleeping with senior Preston Utley, a controversial figure who runs a mildly successful blog called The Wart, where he posts provocative photoshopped images designed to maximize internet traffic. Preston desires to “live outside capitalism” and produce truly radical art while at the same time he's desperately seeking a way to free himself from dependence on his toxic father’s wealth. Meanwhile, washed-up painter Robert Berger comes to Wrynn as the artist-in-residence, trying to restart a stalled career that never lived up to the promise of his controversial breakout painting, Dying Man, a portrait of his best friend that Berger painted while Vince was in the hospital dying of AIDS. Preston, Karina, and Louisa push themselves to challenge the boundaries of their art and their abilities until a vicious prank upends all the characters’ lives. In the aftermath, they try to make fresh starts in New York City, where it’s only a matter of time before their paths converge again. Though the novel can at times be heavy-handed in its messaging, it does an admirable job of parsing such difficult issues as the role of capitalism in art, and references to events such as the Occupy movement give the novel real-world context. The main characters have believable flaws and nuances, and the narrative is adept at interrogating the power imbalances in both the characters’ personal relationships and in an art world rife with sexism and classism.
An intriguing exploration of art and wealth spearheaded by messy, engrossing characters.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-59349-643-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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