A pop philosophy novel without much to say.
An empty nester and her college roommate seek the secret to living consciously in Delp’s debut novel.
What does an independently wealthy woman do once her son leaves the home to attend Swiss boarding school? Tend bar in a series of Seattle hotels, of course! Ever the seeker, Daisy Turner isn’t in it for the tips so much as the conversation. As the drinks flow and tongues are loosened, she has the opportunity to really learn how people think. Take adman Jim “Coop” Cooper, for instance. He’s open to discussing the meaning of life and the hazy morality of his profession while challenging Daisy to concoct original drinks to fit various moods. Coop talks Daisy into attending a consciousness conference with him in Tucson, which Daisy agrees to after learning that one of the speakers is neuroscientist Bianca Zanone, her old college roommate. The conference—and conference drinks—is inspiring enough to send both Daisy and Bianca off onto quests of the mind. Bianca tries to rescue the niece of a software mogul from a Japanese mind control cult; Daisy decides to hike a section of the Pacific Crest Trail in order to gain some perspective. Will either of them finally learn how to be conscious the right way? Delp’s prose is smooth and conversational, particularly the dialogue, which makes up much of this chatty book. Unfortunately, the reader is no more likely or unlikely to find wisdom in these pages as they are while sitting in a real hotel bar. Daisy is an unconvincing, frustrating protagonist. It’s difficult to imagine the mother of a 16-year-old feeling she is done with parenting, but leaving this aside, the fact that her emancipating act is to walk a section of the trail from the bestselling memoir Wild (2012) feels like a bit of a cop-out. (The book wears its influences ungraciously. Daisy dismisses Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)—the clear template for the book’s title—as unreadable.) The book’s wisdom, such as it is, is mostly laundered from other sources, and it’s about as satisfying as a watered-down rum and Coke.
A pop philosophy novel without much to say.Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-74-738201-5
Page Count: 277
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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
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