A memorable coming-of-age story that vividly evokes the tumultuous late ’60s.
A paperboy in Virginia discovers hidden aspects of his diverse community in this historical fiction debut.
In 1988, 34-year-old Sanford “Sandy” Jackson Rivers, who’s white, has worked for the Richmond Times-Daily for nearly a decade, becoming one of the most influential journalists in the state. One day, an obituary-desk photo of an African American man on a battered bicycle sends him rushing off to attend the funeral; then, the story looks back to April 4, 1968, when paperboy Sandy has his first early morning encounter with Henry Clayton Woods, the man in the photo. That same day, the Rev. Martin Luther King is assassinated, and over the next 16 tumultuous months, Sandy tries to make sense of how the headlines in the papers that he delivers affect real lives. Deans, the author of Reckless: The Political Assault on the American Environment (2012), spent 25 years as a journalist, and his novel is a meditation on the “audacious proposition” that the world can be condensed into “eight straight columns of black and white,” delivered before breakfast. He also effectively shows how Sandy has the makings of a journalist early on, as he observes the “roaring din” of the presses, a service in a black church for a soldier killed in Vietnam, and his friend Winston’s determination to serve in the military. The glimpses of Sandy as an adult that bookend the story are tantalizingly brief, but the story of his younger, searching self is even more engaging. Deans’ prose elegantly portrays the natural world that serves as a backdrop for Sandy’s nuanced interactions—“Dawn wander[s] in as though it might not stay”—and marks each of Sandy’s daily journeys as he awakens to the concepts of love, loss, and forgiveness.
A memorable coming-of-age story that vividly evokes the tumultuous late ’60s. (author question & answer)Pub Date: April 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-929647-50-7
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Evening Post Books
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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
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