Unapologetically out there.
A fugitive writer takes up with a hippie time traveler looking for his lost love in Caulfield’s comic novel.
David Wilson’s writing career started as potential personified, his celebrated short story “The First Chapter” creating immense buzz for the brilliant novel sure to follow. When he meets Abbott, a Tom Selleck look-alike with a quasi-religious aura driving a kit-car Ferrari 308, it’s 20 years later and David is hitchhiking, alone. His advance money is gone, his wife has left him, he’s on the run from the law after embezzling university funds, and he has yet to make it past the first sentence of the second chapter of his long-awaited follow-up (“I set up my word processor in a corner to write, and nothing came. Years passed”). In Abbott, David sees an opportunity to salvage his novel; the man tells fantastical stories about looking for his missing wife, Lucille, whom he both met and lost as he traveled through time at the Woodstock music festival while traversing a universal fungal web after getting caught in the rain with five sheets of brown acid in his pocket. Abbott’s stories begin to shift to the exploits of his best friend, Denton White, who spends his time in a psych ward studying the teachings of David Carradine’s character in Kung Fu. Caulfield wears his influences on his sleeve—the novel opens like a restrained Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas before segueing into a less repressive One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest–like setting while dropping references to television, including Magnum, P.I., The Incredible Hulk, and, of course, Kwai Chang Caine, throughout. These nods, along with mentions of conspiracies involving the MKUltra program and the death of Bruce Lee, lend the story a larger-than-life atmosphere. The author shows a great deal of humor in his outlandish characters but never undercuts them with his jokes. The book is upfront from the outset about its unreliable narrators, even when it plays fast and loose with who is telling the story; as strange as its premise is, the novel offers surprising insights into loss and unfulfilled expectations.
Unapologetically out there.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781963252699
Page Count: 397
Publisher: Total Genius Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
