A detailed business drama that evokes Sex and the City but is hampered by awkward execution.
Kline’s debut novel presents a three-decade chronicle of a financially struggling woman working her way up in the beauty-product industry.
Emma O’Farrell Paige always wanted more out of her life. When she was a child, her parents, career con-artists, bounced her around from town to town as they pursued their latest schemes, which made it impossible for Emma to feel at home anywhere. When her mother and father move her to her grandparents’ land in a rural part of the state, she finishes high school with the goal of getting out of there. She and her boyfriend, high school baseball star Ethan Paige, plot their way out; he has a dream of playing ball in the major leagues, and she follows her path to success in the beauty-product industry, which involves cosmetics, perfume, and many colorful characters. As Ethan’s goal becomes increasingly unlikely, Emma quickly rises in her chosen field, making herself indispensable to industry leaders. She makes allies and enemies who propel her further along her trajectory. Along the way, Emma faces a series of tribulations, including vindictive and overbearing bosses, job insecurity, backstabbing, classism, an FBI investigation into perfume counterfeiting, and a marriage beset by challenges. Kline displays an impressive knowledge of the business in which Emma dwells, and this is the novel’s main strength. However, the story suffers from the fact that it often states what the characters are feeling, rather than showing it through action. Also, Emma confusingly narrates the events of her life from some unspecified future point; the story begins in 2003, flashes back to her ’70s childhood, then moves chronologically to some unspecified time, years after the story began. Some moments of dialogue are amusing and effective, and readers may be left wanting more of it: “Your banker-on-a-spring-afternoon ensemble does not exactly scream Moschino brand.” Instead, the narration too often reads like a passive summary.
A detailed business drama that evokes Sex and the City but is hampered by awkward execution.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2021
ISBN: 9781528987783
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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