Fiery on many levels, Murphy’s uneven debut nonetheless makes her an author to watch.
At a Southern California college campus, rape and sudden death are on the rise.
“If she’s female, start between the legs. Dad taught me that, his hand on mine, the knife between us.” This creepy childhood memory of field-dressing a kill is our introduction to Sarah, protagonist of Murphy’s choppy debut: an uneasy mashup of a druggy campus novel and a feminist revenge thriller, with wildfires blazing and ash raining down in the background. Sarah is about to complete her graduate work in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Teresa; her best friend and party buddy is her classmate Nathan, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune who has taken a vow of celibacy. The UCST campus has a tunnel on whose walls the names of students who have died over the past few academic years are graffitied, continually updated and restored after each official whitewashing. Next to the names are notations: “miss you, love you” and sometimes “rapist.” Just a few pages in, Sarah will have to add Nathan’s name to the list, as she finds him dead in his bed with a needle in his arm. But it’s the wrong arm and the wrong drug, so she suspects foul play. Maybe the student who violently raped her a few years ago, known only as Rapist? Maybe his sidekick, Flopsy, who mouths curses and spits at her whenever he gets the chance? There are many rapes and rapists in this novel, and the theme of rape culture is yoked to a wild horse of a plot that rockets from a visit with Nathan’s ethereal, fabulously wealthy sister, to a data-hunting expedition in a Title IX office, to a job talk at an academic conference, to a bizarre twist near the end that seems like it could be from another book entirely.
Fiery on many levels, Murphy’s uneven debut nonetheless makes her an author to watch.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593801499
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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