Some visual fun, but its crude, adult humor may have limited appeal.
Debut author Hill’s illustrated book profiles bad kitty antics in a comedic work for adults.
The fact that the title contains a slang word for female genitalia is the first clue that adults are the intended audience for this uneven attempt to satirize a cat owner’s love-hate relationship with their feline companion. The author’s loosely rhyming text, framed around crude expletives and sexual references, encompasses accounts of early morning cat yowls, barefoot hairball splats, and a cat’s penchant for presenting its rear end to its owner (“Her standard view is an ASSHOLE TO THE FACE. / Pray NOTHING IS RELEASED, and she gets a taste”). Other events include a vet’s expensive feline rectal exam and the cat’s owner’s bedroom encounter with a date; although the narrator “hasn’t been laid in over a year,” her cat’s stares and nauseating “fresh new dumps” in the litter box kill the mood. Schultz offers colorful, full-page, cartoon-style illustrations that match the general tone. The images are polished in style and include an amusing detail of a comical rat that serves as a silent but expressive observer on each page; the rodent makes use of a “BARF BAG” when the narrator steps on a hairball, for example. The text, in a hand-drawn style, adds interest, sometimes curving across the page with uppercase words in different colors for added emphasis. Overall, this book is likely to appeal to fans of a small but distinct subgenre of adult humor books that specifically target cat misbehavior, which include Stop Meowing and Go the F*ck to Sleep by Rosa Silva (2017) and Cats Are A**holes: A Coloring Book of Adorably Bad Kitties (2022) by Caitlin Peterson.
Some visual fun, but its crude, adult humor may have limited appeal.Pub Date: June 13, 2022
ISBN: 9781039144354
Page Count: 28
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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