A thoroughly engaging and intelligent debut, brimming with insight and a sense of place.
The race for a congressional seat in a trendy rural town brings many tensions to the surface.
Recently proclaimed “The Best Big Small Town in America” by a glossy travel and lifestyle magazine, the fictional town of Griffin has “transitioned from one expression of itself to another, with the old toy and candy stores eventually replaced by this gourmet tea shop and that high-end hair salon.” Schaefer’s impressive debut picks up a lot of sparkling, interesting threads that have shown up in other recent novels—the gentrification of New York’s Hudson Valley (fictionalized here), queer candidates entering politics, the opioid crisis as it affects the middle class—bringing insight and texture to these issues. It opens with Griffin’s classic Memorial Day parade and continues through Election Day. On one side of the ballot is Chip Riley, a longtime local who owns a bar called the Lucky Buck, and on the other is Paul Banks, new to the area, his campaign financed by his wealthy older husband, Stan Banks. Caught between them are two other members of the Riley family. Chip’s wife, Diane, is a religious woman who once campaigned against same-sex marriage and has now become the real-estate agent of choice for the influx of gay men from the city. His son Will is home from his first year of college and newly out, and though he works at his father’s bar and on his campaign, he meets the urban gay crowd through a catering gig, and is drawn to their sophistication and freedom. Will’s sexuality is a bit of a sore spot for his family, particularly his older brother, Joe, who is reeling after the overdose death of his best friend and is still into drugs himself. Schaefer does a masterful job delineating these and a large set of supporting characters, ending his novel with a grace note involving two of the latter group, choosing to emphasize new connections rather than old divisions.
A thoroughly engaging and intelligent debut, brimming with insight and a sense of place.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781668086896
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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 debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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