A thoughtful coming-of-age story that takes unexpected turns.
Harrison’s YA novel, set in 1980s California, tells the tale of a young girl facing her grief over losing her beloved sister.
Anna Heath is nearly 16 when her 28-year-old sister, Laura, dies unexpectedly. The aftermath of such a loss would be tough for any sibling, but Laura, who married a man named Steven, cared for Anna like a mother after their parents’ deaths in a flood more than a decade ago. After Laura’s death, Anna leaned on a couple friends, Jack and Tessa, with whom she spends time. One of Laura’s friends, Kim Sanders, becomes Anna’s ally in her investigation into a secret of Laura’s that involves the place their parents died: Riverwood, New York. Anna has vivid dreams, and she can sense their approach: “The flickering light seemed brighter and brighter, and I leaned back and threw my arm across my eyes. A dream was coming.” As Harrison develops the story, the dreams start to show significant connections to Anna’s past and Laura’s secret. The italicized dream descriptions, written in the third person, are followed by an informative note from Laura written in bold; in the first note, for example, readers learn of a woman named Christine, who plays a critical role in the story. Kim also reveals that Laura had planned a trip to Riverwood for Anna’s birthday; Anna finds the plane tickets and asks Kim to accompany her on her journey. Overall, this is an intriguing novel in which the quest narrative delivers an intriguing story that deeply explores questions of identity. In Riverwood, the narrative offers readers a twist that effectively allows the protagonist to move forward in her life without Laura; she thinks back on her sister’s words of wisdom, which have a long history: “You are who you think you are, so always think of yourself at your very finest.”
A thoughtful coming-of-age story that takes unexpected turns.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2023
ISBN: 979-8854841535
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.
A chance meeting in a museum unlocks a long-closed door in a family’s past.
Of a piece with her last three novels—Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023)—Patchett’s latest explores the evolution of families over time, romantic secrets, and step-relationships, again giving these topics the wry and tender treatment that is distinctively hers. As it begins, Daphne Fuller’s attentive husband, Jonathan, notices that a man has been following them through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first they chalk it up to the fact that “old guys love [Daphne],” as she told Jonathan decades ago, a notion he has held onto "like a souvenir postcard from another era." But it turns out that, though Daphne doesn’t recognize him, Eddie Triplett is her former stepfather. Like the author herself, as recalled in her 2020 essay “Three Fathers,” Daphne has had three dads. Her biological father, a deep-sea fisherman named Buddy Zabriskie, left the family early; her current stepfather, Lucas Ekker, lives with her mother in retirement in Massachusetts. Ekker is an unprepossessing sort Abby met working as the publicist for his self-help books, Positivity!, Positively Positive!, The Positivity Workbook!, Positive Every Day!, ad infinitum. The man in the museum, Eddie Triplett, was also someone her mother met through her job in publishing, and once Daphne realizes who he is, she remembers that “[their] hearts were forever stitched together.” This is because Daphne and Eddie were in a serious car accident when she was 9 years old, after which her mother immediately divorced him and evicted him from their lives. The details of that accident—among them lies the reason the novel is named after a horse called Whistler—are gradually wheedled out of Daphne by her younger sister, Leda, a clinical psychologist in New York and a reliable source of insight on the narrative’s key issues. “‘You make it sound like I’ve been keeping all this from you, but I’m not,’ [Daphne] said. ‘Who goes through life thinking about what happened when they were nine?’ ‘It’s all people think about,’ Leda said.”
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780063511637
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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