There is surely someone you know who would love this book.
A sequel to a beloved fable reiterates basic truths about kindness, courage, and self-esteem.
It looks like a children’s picture book, it reads like a children’s picture book, but as the author tells us in his handwritten introduction—all the text is in slightly hard-to-read pen-and-ink cursive, which is the most grown-up thing about it—“This book is for everyone, whatever age you are, and I hope it helps you remember that you are loved, and you matter. You are brave and magnificent.” Well, to some of its brave and magnificent readers it will nonetheless seem like the kind of thing you would read to a child between Love You Forever and Go the F**k To Sleep. Yet the facts say otherwise: Its quite similar predecessor, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2019), was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It has been translated into more than 50 different languages and dialects and spawned myriad offshoots in art and commerce. Perhaps this is because it hits the exact intersection of the sort of positive messages delivered by children’s literature and the greatest hits of self-help and spiritual affirmation. To wit: “One of the kindest things you can do is be gentle with yourself.” “I know my mind can play tricks on me, and tell me that it’s all hopeless. But I need to remember who I am; that I am loved, I matter and I bring to this world things no one else can.” Perhaps every age needs its Jonathan Livingston Seagull. There’s a good running joke about a mole who can’t stop eating cake, but then the recipe for the cake (a handful of humility, a jug of joy, etc.) kind of ruins it.
There is surely someone you know who would love this book.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593994825
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Penguin Life
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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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