A bulky, big-hearted family saga.
A family band is supported—and disrupted—by an unusual interloper.
Hammonds Reed’s debut adult novel is a saga about the three Johnson brothers, who, as the story opens in 1968, are an aspiring R&B act: headstrong Roman, sensitive River, and neurodivergent Rocco. Unifying them is Christmas Jones the Third, the ghost of a lynched boy they encountered while driving from Detroit to an audition. He’s missing a hand, fusses with his intestines, and wears the noose he was hanged with, but Hammonds Reed emphasizes his kindliness as much as his symbolism as an endangered Black body. As the boys’ parents, Odysseus and Emmeline, work to get their sons’ careers going in Pasadena, Christmas’ protectiveness gets the better of him, and he seriously hurts a schoolmate bullying Rocco. Christmas is banished; Rocco is institutionalized; Roman enlists to fight in Vietnam; and River becomes a famous solo act and talk show host blending elements of Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and Sammy Davis Jr. As the story moves through the ’70s and ’80s, crises abound for the Johnsons: addiction, mental illness, breakups, betrayals, all layered with various forms of racism. Hammonds Reed conscientiously gives each character plenty of stage time—her portrait of Rocco, whose challenges were misunderstood in this era, is well-drawn, and scenes of Christmas’ exile have lively magical-realist elements. But River is plainly the star of this show, as he navigates fame alongside obligations to family and his homosexuality, which he feels obligated to conceal. There are moments where Hammonds Reed heavy-handedly layers the melodrama, and her care with getting the details right about the Vietnam War or the early days of the AIDS crisis sometimes comes at the expense of more nuanced characterizations. But the novel is admirably and remarkably ambitious, capturing a family’s internal struggles along with those of American society.
A bulky, big-hearted family saga.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780593724484
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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
SEEN & HEARD
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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