Engagingly spooky when not lost in the weeds.
A ghostwriter collaborates with his literary idol in Warner’s horror novel.
The story begins with an unnerving prologue in which the chief of a volunteer fire department sees a giant beast launch its body at his car. He stumbles out to find a mysterious woman in a green cloak, who says she has a job for him. Before long, he has attacked a woman he used to know, seemingly in a trance. But this is all just a fantasy, scribbled notes from the pen of Martin Knight, an English professor at the University of Iowa. What follows are a series of chapters (each introduced with the subtitle “a novel by Martin Knight”) introducing the reader to a new assistant professor at the university named John Sterling—though he is also referred to as Jack, somewhat interchangeably (and confusingly). Sterling is also a writer and has published a novel inspired by the pulp horror stories of his favorite author, Martin Knight. After a lengthy introduction to Sterling’s family and a series of hallucinatory scenes that may or may not actually be occurring—the assistant professor regularly wakes to find scribbled notes or evidence that some of his dreams are real—Sterling finally meets the legendary Martin Knight and is offered a position as his ghostwriter. In this nesting-doll narrative, the shifting character names and layers of meaning within the story become more than a little confusing. The female characters aren’t particularly well-realized; when they aren’t hectoring the men, they are undoing their bra straps to reveal their “well-endowed bosom[s].” Still, Warner’s lucid prose (“The front door was still closed, but the hole had widened to the size of a dinner plate. Cathy saw the clown’s face peer through the jagged opening, and a white-gloved hand reached inside to feel around for the lock”) generates effective scares.
Engagingly spooky when not lost in the weeds.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2024
ISBN: 9798992005967
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Jupiter & Phoebus Publishing House
Review Posted Online: July 31, 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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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