Inventive, layered, and deliciously weird.
A worker at a research center for haunted objects tells a series of ghost stories to her underling.
In Korean, the word to denote a senior colleague is “sunbae.” In Chung’s “novel in ghost stories,” the first-person narrator—an employee at “the Institute,” a place where researchers study supernatural items—relies on her sunbae not just for instructions on how to be a proper employee (turn off your phone at work; never look behind you) but for storytelling. The stories feature the employees and objects of the Institute, and images and dialogue loop and recur across the book. Often, an object appears in one story only to have its haunted origin revealed in a subsequent narrative. In “Cursed Sheep,” for example, a paranormal content creator thinks getting a job at the Institute will skyrocket him to a massive following; instead, he suffers a hallucinatory trip through the building, dodging sheep in the stairwells and bugs underfoot that are not quite what they seem. In “Silence of the Sheep,” the sunbae tells the story of the Institute’s deputy director, who once worked as a fortune teller with the help of a prognosticating sheep who also serves as an experimental research subject at a local veterinary college. The recurrences and doublings contribute to the atmosphere of genuine dread, as do the narratives’ structures, which are often stories within stories within stories. The labyrinthine construction mirrors the Institute itself, the shifting mystery at the center of the book. One of Chung’s great strengths has always been social critique, and these tales cleverly examine the ways that vulnerable people—queer people, divorced women, the disabled, people saddled with debt—are society’s “ghosts,” who, rather than haunt others after death, must fight for justice and survival in the here and now.
Inventive, layered, and deliciously weird.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781643756639
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
