Original and hilarious, this novel about a Gen X midlife crisis reveals that base instincts can coexist with the maternal.
A roman à clef disguised as a murder mystery, or vice versa? Either way, the suburban mother who narrates the story has to contend with a lot of trouble.
Perdita Jungfrau and Theo Vestergaard have two young children, son Atticus and daughter Honor, and live in San Diego. Everything should be coming up roses, but Perdie is unhappy with her lot: What happened to her feminist rockabilly band? Why does Theo gag whenever he’s asked to change a diaper? Will Atticus ever outgrow his pernicious allergies? Perdie spends most of her time watching true-crime shows while she nurses Atticus. She loves America’s Worst Murders Ever because “you always find out who did it in the end.” One day, her neighbor Jill’s roofer takes a bad fall and Perdie’s rush to his aid may, as she tells everyone, have saved his life. She takes a bad fall, too, metaphorically speaking, and decides she’s in love with Fernando Acuña. The narrative cuts from the early days of their flirtation in 2007 ahead to 2010, when everyone is shocked to discover Nando has been fatally shot at close range in an apparent robbery. Perdie’s narration, via Neyenesch’s prose, is mordantly funny and perfectly pitched, whether describing married sex (she says Theo was like an “asshole roommate” who “smelled good, and he knew how to make me come”) or the fact that her troubled brother Spencer imagines beating his steakhouse customers “over the head with the long-ass peppermill.” However, the humor shares space with unease. Nando’s girlfriend, Charleigh, seems to be stalking Perdie, showing up in her Volkswagen Beetle wearing green aviator sunglasses, while detectives question Perdie and her divorced parents about convicted felon Spencer’s whereabouts. Is it possible that, despite finding her soul mate, Perdie knew nothing about Nando? Anyone who has ever felt estranged from their nearest and dearest will appreciate how Perdie manages to take back control of her own life.
Original and hilarious, this novel about a Gen X midlife crisis reveals that base instincts can coexist with the maternal.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781668213124
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Summit
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 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.
