A funny and charming look at what it means to grow up and find your own way.
After a disastrous tarot reading, a woman blows up her life by sending honest letters to her nearest and dearest.
Becky Alderton is nearly 30, and nothing in her life is going the way she’d always assumed it would. She’s single, perpetually going on terrible dates, and nursing an unrequited crush on her ex-boyfriend and current best friend, Max. She still lives with her mother, who actually gives her a curfew. Her job is a dead end, and Becky can’t stand any of her co-workers. Worst of all, her closest friends are all moving up in life—working in high-powered careers, buying houses, and getting married. Becky feels like she’s stuck. When she misinterprets a tarot reading and assumes she’s going to die, Becky finally springs into action and writes painfully honest letters to everyone in her life. She tells one friend that her boyfriend sucks, her mother that she’s moving out, and her boss that she’s quitting. She also sends a letter to Max, confessing her love for him. With the letters sent, she’s ready to meet her maker—except she doesn’t. Becky remains stubbornly alive because it turns out the Death card in tarot doesn’t mean that literal death is on the immediate horizon. Now she has to deal with the fallout of her actions, which could push her into finally making some changes—or make her even more self-destructive. Becky is truly a mess, at rock bottom as she coasts through life with no motivation to change, but Seager casts her in an empathetic light. Becky claims that she’s “forever stuck in the role of ‘chaotic bi friend’ in the movie of [her] own life,” so her transformation as she gains self-respect feels hard-earned and satisfying.
A funny and charming look at what it means to grow up and find your own way.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780063307209
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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