Packed with gothic plot, gushing blood, choking clods of dirt, and angry ghosts—a smorgasbord for devotees.
A Chinese American Upstairs, Downstairs meets Fall of the House of Usher meets young queer love.
Li’s adult fiction debut revolves around the death of an Oscar-winning Chinese actress named Vivian Yin. When asked to attend the reading of the will, Nora Deng, the granddaughter of Yin’s long-dead housekeeper and groundskeeper, is shocked to learn that Vivian made a last-minute change to the document, leaving her stately but spooky California home not to her own descendants but to Nora’s mother, Elaine Deng. WTF? Lucille Wang, Vivian’s daughter, is having none of it. Though the lawyer reports that her mother told him, “My daughters can’t have this house. It will ruin them,” Lucille is certain that Elaine forced Vivian to change her will, then killed her. She prevails on Elaine to let her; her troubled sister, Rennie; and her daughter, Madeline, stay in the house for a week to get Vivian's things together and “process" what's happening. Despite her intense hatred of the Yins, Elaine agrees, though she says she and Nora will be staying there, too. (One of many things not to think about too hard.) As that week rolls forward, a parallel timeline in the past unfolds the story of Vivian Yin’s life and marriage, revealing her to be both the victim and perpetrator of long-buried misdeeds. Though, in the present, the two families couldn’t be more at odds, Nora Deng and Madeline Wang discover they feel a connection to one another, one which only the reader knows is eerily predestined. And let’s not forget the immense, overgrown, long-untended garden, a very serious little shop of horrors. Is there too much stuffed into this novel? Are there a number of dubious plot elements? Are there any truly credible characters? Picky, picky, picky.
Packed with gothic plot, gushing blood, choking clods of dirt, and angry ghosts—a smorgasbord for devotees.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781668051726
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
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