A devilishly satisfying work of twisted comedy starring the exploits of an unrepentant alcoholic joker.
In Kempf’s horror novel, a troubled addict adds revenge to his long list of missteps.
Prolific horror writer Kempf’s knack for deft characterization is on vivid display with his Pennsylvanian protagonist Jack Lively, a recovering alcoholic, raging drunk driver, wife batterer, father of one, and “three-time loser.” After a series of drunken blackouts and arrests, resulting in “three DUIs in two years,” he is placed on nine months of house arrest. Oddly, he is allowed a travel radius that includes a small bar where he performs onstage. Lively is a comedian whose penchant for raunchy black humor often leaves audiences angry. Adding misery on top of despair is Emily—his embittered “heartless, cruel, and mean” ex-wife—for whom he harbors a seething resentment despite the temporary relief found at Twelve Steps meetings and regular romps with Riley, a local escort. Between check-up visits from his community corrections officer and random breathalyzer tests, recurring dreams of murdering Emily haunt him. While his comedy routine is consistently offensive (including a skit involving a bloody stuffed bunny), Lively’s interactions with his appalled, heckling audiences result in several rousing sequences in Kempf’s short novel. Also notable is the author’s realistic portrayal of Lively’s alcoholism, which manifests itself in painful cravings he calls his “sleeping giant.” In the ultimate vengeance ruse to rob and murder Emily, Lively conspires with Riley, who desperately needs a cash infusion to repay her pimp, and the expected mayhem ensues. Kempf’s first-person narration dives deep into Lively’s psyche to expose his fear of failure, his devotion to alcohol, and the dark, murderous nature of a revenge plot. The author manages to evoke sympathy for his protagonist within his innate struggle to survive and to make sense of his misled life. In Kempf’s world, there are no happy endings, but there are unquestionable comeuppance and wry humor in spades. This potent novel will appeal particularly to fans of bleak humor and bad-guy characters who remain shameless from beginning to end.
A devilishly satisfying work of twisted comedy starring the exploits of an unrepentant alcoholic joker.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Graylyn Press
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Mostly charming, sometimes twee, with some really lovely things to say about poetry.
And now for some lessons in poetry and typesetting.
After Lessons in Chemistry (2022), a debut that became one of the most popular books of recent years, Garmus applies her unique comic sensibility to the story of Batter Gray, a man named after a family dog of mythic talents. A poetry maven who was reading Auden as a fourth grader, he was raised by a type-designer mother and historian father who dearly hoped he would choose some more viable profession than poetry. But via an amazing stroke of luck, he lands a job after college at Peck & Peck, an illustrious literary journal located in a beautiful building in New York City. He’s at the very bottom of the complex and dysfunctional totem pole, making copies in the basement, struggling not to run afoul of the cantankerous editor-in-chief, Salton Peck, or his smarmy assistant, Dexter York, both of whom have taken an instant dislike to our hero (and can never get his name right. Few people can). And to be honest, Batter is not without his flaws. The novel bogs down a bit in the middle, with Salton constantly excoriating his staff in ALL CAPS and much ado over the possibility that submissions have been taken outside the building, which is forbidden. Along the way, many, many famous poets are name-checked, as are many typefaces, since Batter has been raised to instantly identify a font in the wild. The best example of this occurs during his brief sojourn in jail: “The thing I kind of admired about Motherfucker II, besides his manners, was this huge tattoo he had on his neck that read I will fuck you up in ITC Bolt. Call me my mother’s son, but whoever inked it nailed the kerning.” The narrative picks up steam toward the end, as bad guys become good guys, mysteries are solved, and Batter throws one hell of a party.
Mostly charming, sometimes twee, with some really lovely things to say about poetry.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781668251065
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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