A heartfelt and deeply human collective portrait set in a palace of consumerism.
Stanton’s novel tracks the intersecting lives of customers and employees of a 1980s mall.
It’s 1983, and a brand-new indoor shopping center has just opened up on the edge of a large Ohio city. Built on the former site of a meadow filled with wildflowers, Dandelion Crossing is all things to all people: an eyesore and traffic magnet to local homeowners; a place of employment for lonely do-gooders, bookish transplants, and ex-convicts; a mark of progress for an ambitious local politician; and a glass-ceiling-shattering zenith in the career of the mall’s female executive. It’s a place where an artist, recently relocated from New York City and suffering from heartbreak, finds his groove coaching a team of high schoolers in a breakdancing competition; where a closeted gay teen decides to risk being recognized while seeing a movie about a male stripper; and where a widow in need of a new hairdresser finds herself in the chair of a spiky-haired goth whose receptionist seems unfamiliar with the concept of a perm. The mall brings together locals from across the metropolitan area who might otherwise never meet, allowing storylines to converge unexpectedly and long-simmering emotions to burst forth like water from the mall’s fountain. Stanton revels in the ’80s setting, enhancing the stories with funny period references. A gang of rowdy teenage girls calls themselves The Benatars, for instance, and a hapless pet store employee evaluates her own sexual orientation based on the era’s detective shows: “Truth be told, Amy wasn’t sure where she fell. Except for her persistent crush on TV’s mustachioed Matt Houston, whose devil-may-care independence she greatly admired, it was rare for her to feel sexual attraction to anyone.” (There’s even a phone-call cameo by art icon Keith Haring.) In Stanton’s capable hands, the sterile mall quickly transforms into an unlikely town square: a place where people not only search for goods and services, but for connection in all its forms.
A heartfelt and deeply human collective portrait set in a palace of consumerism.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798297577206
Page Count: 138
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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