A gripping story brimming with psychological subtlety.
A troubled young woman is arrested and faces deportation and prison time in Burns’ novel.
Marisa Susanna Du Plessis was born in Canada, the daughter of Victor Du Plessis and Daniela Gomes Costa (a South African and a Brazilian, respectively), parents who never bothered to secure her American citizenship after they moved to the United States when she was 6 months old. However, Marisa is as American as they come—she grows up in Kansas City, Missouri, attends high school there, and even serves for four years in the Marines before receiving an honorable discharge. She leads a mischievous life, one that sometimes drifts into criminality—she is arrested for drug possession and check fraud. When the federal authorities realize she is not an American citizen, they deport her. Traumatized by her expulsion from the only place she’s ever known, Marisa defiantly returns to the U.S.; her remarkable plight is compellingly conveyed by the author. When she’s caught yet again by the authorities, she is charged with illegal entry into the country following deportation, a serious crime that could land Marisa in prison for 20 years. She’s given assistance and encouragement by Alvey, a 67-year-old musician who gives her a lift one night before she’s arrested and takes a profound interest in her case and her life (“After all that had transpired in the previous month, there was no question in Alvey’s mind but that he would attend the preliminary hearing. Of all the events of the summer of ’23 to date, [Marisa] was the undisputed champion in the arena of Alvey’s attention”). As he investigates her past, both out of a burning curiosity and a desire to help, he peels back the bewildering layers of a life as fraught with difficulty as it is filled with promise.
The heart of the story is Marisa, a memorable protagonist who is exceedingly intelligent—she has a “genius level IQ”—but also possibly mentally ill. As a child, she begins assuming an alter ego, Desiree (which would be amended to “Dessyre”), who cheered on and legitimated her rebelliousness; this identity expanded to encompass a growing defiance of the law. “Desiree was a vestment that would open doors that were otherwise locked to Marisa. Desiree was an intuitive invention that didn’t die in the third grade. She would be resurrected over the years to confront challenges for which Marisa, despite all her innate intelligence, was unsuited to cope. And Desiree would develop in her complexity as life’s circumstances grew correspondently complex.” It is simply impossible for the reader not to sympathize with Marisa—even the legal authorities prosecuting her do—but it’s also impossible not to find her relentlessly self-destructive behavior a source of culpability (and exasperating). The plot has a tendency to meander and stall—Burns simply packs too much into a novel that balloons into something unmanageably prolix. For example, readers learn far more about Marisa’s parents than is necessary to the story, and the narrative probably spends too much time on Alvey as well. Still, this is an extraordinary tale, a riveting “dramatization inspired by true events.”
A gripping story brimming with psychological subtlety.Pub Date: May 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798325798368
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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