A tender, heartbreaking, and exceptionally intelligent study of contemporary motherhood in all its complexity.
In Yearwood’s novel, two women’s lives are changed by very different experiences of motherhood.
Rebecca and her husband—both distinguished professors at the University of Pennsylvania—live a life of elegant dinner parties thrown in their three-story Victorian home, but something is missing: a child. While staring at the condoms Will insists on using (meant for “prom nights…not for a woman in her late thirties,” she thinks bitterly), Rebecca decides to leave Will and become a parent on her own. As Rebecca researches designer sperm and adoption, across town, a young pregnant woman named Brittney is struggling to raise her two toddlers. After her irresponsible husband leaves her, Brittney is plunged into a nightmarish world of childcare woes, dead-end jobs, and a schedule so punishing she can’t find time to do the dishes. No matter how hard Brittney tries, it becomes clear—especially to theDepartment of Human Services—that she will not be able to raise her three children on her own. At the same time, Rebecca decides to pursue foster care as a way for an “older, single” woman to care for a child. Soon, these two very different women find their lives intersecting over the fate of Brittney’s three children as they are forced to confront their perceptions of one another and what it means to be a mother. Yearwood’s gift for characterization has readers rooting for both Rebecca and Brittney from the moments they are introduced. When the novel’s structure turns them against one another, situating them on opposing sides of a cold bureaucracy, it’s more than a clever twist—it’s a gut-wrenching experience. “You can’t just buy my children,” Britney thinks when she meets Rebecca for the first time in one of the story’s many well-observed instances in which economic tensions bubble under the surface (Brittney can barely get to the hospital to give birth while Rebecca quickly resolves the baby’s crying with a visit to a competent but expensive pediatrician). Through even the saddest and most difficult passages, Yearwood’s dry wit and literary style will keep readers engrossed, fascinated by the complex, beautiful women she has created.
A tender, heartbreaking, and exceptionally intelligent study of contemporary motherhood in all its complexity.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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