A worthwhile read for those interested in open relationships.
A rom-com highlighting the intricacies of exploring ethical non-monogamy.
Holly and Fliss have plenty in common: the two women are young, white, straight millennials living in London, working steady jobs, and enjoying loving relationships with their long-term partners. Holly, a fashion design assistant, has been with her boyfriend, Will, for nearly a decade. When he plans a rare date night, she feels nearly certain he’ll propose. To her dismay, she leaves dinner ringless and damn near devastated—Will wants to open their relationship. Holly feels “like [she's] just been hit in the back of the head with a really fast, hard ball.” She finds the prospect of dating other people repulsive, but agrees to try it temporarily. On the other hand, Fliss, a translator, can’t imagine committing to monogamy. Her and her boyfriend, Ash, have been open for the entirety of their three-year relationship, and it works well for them. She’s taken aback when Ash asks her to close their relationship—she enjoys having the freedom to make new connections and sleep with whomever she likes—but, as she loves Ash, she agrees to give it a shot. When Holly and Fliss meet by chance in a restaurant bathroom, they strike up a friendship and agree to guide the other through their new relationship dynamics. What does and doesn't make relationships ethical and healthy is a critical question posed in this novel. Seager presents plenty of realistic depictions of the tension and even turbulence that can rock a relationship when one partner desires monogamy and one doesn't, especially when faulty communication burdens the relationship further. “He’s magnificent,” Fliss thinks of Ash, “but can he be everything I need? Can anyone?” The writing tilts young—this is Seager’s first novel for adults—but Holly and Fliss are charming protagonists with impressive force of character. Their stories demonstrate that it's unwise to elevate monogamous romantic relationships over all other forms of connection, including friendships, which can be just as precious.
A worthwhile read for those interested in open relationships.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780063307094
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.
A chance meeting in a museum unlocks a long-closed door in a family’s past.
Of a piece with her last three novels—Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023)—Patchett’s latest explores the evolution of families over time, romantic secrets, and step-relationships, again giving these topics the wry and tender treatment that is distinctively hers. As it begins, Daphne Fuller’s attentive husband, Jonathan, notices that a man has been following them through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first they chalk it up to the fact that “old guys love [Daphne],” as she told Jonathan decades ago, a notion he has held onto "like a souvenir postcard from another era." But it turns out that, though Daphne doesn’t recognize him, Eddie Triplett is her former stepfather. Like the author herself, as recalled in her 2020 essay “Three Fathers,” Daphne has had three dads. Her biological father, a deep-sea fisherman named Buddy Zabriskie, left the family early; her current stepfather, Lucas Ekker, lives with her mother in retirement in Massachusetts. Ekker is an unprepossessing sort Abby met working as the publicist for his self-help books, Positivity!, Positively Positive!, The Positivity Workbook!, Positive Every Day!, ad infinitum. The man in the museum, Eddie Triplett, was also someone her mother met through her job in publishing, and once Daphne realizes who he is, she remembers that “[their] hearts were forever stitched together.” This is because Daphne and Eddie were in a serious car accident when she was 9 years old, after which her mother immediately divorced him and evicted him from their lives. The details of that accident—among them lies the reason the novel is named after a horse called Whistler—are gradually wheedled out of Daphne by her younger sister, Leda, a clinical psychologist in New York and a reliable source of insight on the narrative’s key issues. “‘You make it sound like I’ve been keeping all this from you, but I’m not,’ [Daphne] said. ‘Who goes through life thinking about what happened when they were nine?’ ‘It’s all people think about,’ Leda said.”
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780063511637
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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