A deeply introspective novel with a notable metaphor for reinvention after trauma in the form of a weaponized pageant girl.
A former child beauty queen–turned–depressive teen grapples with her identity after learning she can’t trust her own memory.
The cover would suggest this debut novel is an espionage thriller: At 30, Jessica Clink “discovers she’s been a sleeper agent in a deep state government program.” And while this book is an exercise in finding answers, it isn’t a fast-paced, hemisphere-crossing quest story. Instead, Jessica's introspective narrative is meant to craft a cohesive story for herself from a lifetime of shredded memories—it's therapy and reinvention and confession all at the same time. Set against a 1990s backdrop—Bill Clinton, tanning beds, JonBenét Ramsey—Jessica’s first-person search for her forgotten years is a curious monologue combining teenage humor with the sterility of a psychological evaluation. Jessica begins with the easy part—stating what truths can be established: “To tell this story, the narrator became a child beauty queen.” It’s also disclosed that Jessica’s mother, Grethe, is Norwegian and a former beauty queen herself. Jessica’s post-punk–loving babysitter, Christine, is Grethe's distant relation and one of the few people allowed in the house by Jessica’s father, Dr. Clink, who is “the founder and chair of the Boredom Studies department at the Midwestern University [Jessica] dropped out of.” As Jessica provides a basic outline of her life, revealing the “subtle panic [that] undergirded the atmosphere” of her home, she drops hints at the betrayals and violence to come. Eventually, she begins to deliver revelations—like having been "trained by operatives of a shadow government” and having “several different ‘personas’ that [she] could ‘transition’ into”—with zero dramatic effect. These are mere details amid the larger violence inflicted upon her—the loss of self. Patient readers will enjoy some thrills in reaching the end of Jessica’s narrative spiral, which aggressively picks up pace in the end. But these moments feel almost out of place; they are benign vehicles pushing Jessica toward a sense of resolution. Ultimately, this story is a product of memory that is “hers. And hers alone.”
A deeply introspective novel with a notable metaphor for reinvention after trauma in the form of a weaponized pageant girl.Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-59376-707-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
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