A compact, high-impact tale that doesn’t delve too deeply into its characters.
This novella follows eight skilled fighters taking part in an illegal MMA–style championship.
The Pit, in an unspecified wooded area, is the site for a four-day series of fights with a hefty purse. The Pit Fight Championship is streamed to millions, though the people who put the event together remain anonymous. The eight participants have nicknames for the event, but also stay anonymous and pair off in bouts each day until the final tournament determines the winner. Both Two Hawks and Dmitri Petrovich enter the Pit FC undefeated. A few of the fighters start the championship having never won a single match; one of them, Artemeli Skryke, has never fought before but vows to prove he’s a worthy opponent. Among the eight is one woman, Juniper Jinn, who’s looking to punch and kick her way to Grand Champion and a $100,000 prize. The participants, who don masks or face paint, engage in brutal fights that end when someone taps out or is knocked out; a draw is also a possibility. They wind up with cuts, bruises, and broken bones, though it takes quite a lot for one to drop out of the Pit FC. In their downtime, the fighters, also including Whirlwind Dervish, Warhole Eleven, Hijinks Olsen, and Pickup Truck Huck, live at a camp, where they hang out together and occasionally hook up. One of them will win the crown.
Action in Haukos’ story is abundant and distinctive. Taut, lucid descriptions keep everything popping: “She bucked free of the suffocating pressure, and he sat up into the mount, hips bearing down into her torso. He threw a strike to the body with his left fist, then dropped into her face with the right elbow.” Each fight is unique. While the novella presents a behind-the-scenes glimpse into participants’ lives, it comes with only nominal insight into their lives beyond the four-day fight. They fish, regularly exercise, or play cards, but anything outside of their camp stays a mystery. In the same vein, the streamed event’s unnamed female interviewer, appearing in numerous scenes, predominantly focuses her attention on the bouts; we learn little else about her. That said, the story treats readers to occasional glimpses of characters’ true personalities. Two Hawks, for one, talks about opponents respectfully and doesn’t resort to trash talking like others do; several cast members are interested in Juniper and the interviewer. And while these characters sometimes drop nuggets of their real lives in interviews, more than one is unquestionably hiding something about themselves. A spinoff is possible. Where exactly this narrative unfolds isn’t known, but the “infamous French circuit” is apparently the place for death matches. Nevertheless, the ending is abrupt and a touch bizarre, although it’s certainly one readers aren’t likely to forget anytime soon.
A compact, high-impact tale that doesn’t delve too deeply into its characters.Pub Date: April 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781637848838
Page Count: 110
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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