This family-inspired history tells a compelling story while straddling genres.
In Mason’s historical novel, a young enslaved man escapes to join the Union army during the Civil War.
In this impassioned and historically grounded book, the author draws on both research and family oral tradition to recount the experiences of his ancestor, Parson Sykes. After researching and planning their escape, in 1864 Parson and his two brothers leave the Virginia plantation where they have spent their lives, elude pursuers and slave-catchers, and make their way to a Union army camp, where they enlist in one of the recently formed Black regiments and join in the fighting until the war’s conclusion. Parson’s decision to liberate himself and his brothers is born of an awareness that being enslaved is an abhorrent condition and a fortuitous set of circumstances (he is literate, and a part-time job at the local railroad station gives him access to outside news and information about the wider world) that allow him to move from intention to action. The book establishes the historical context for Parson’s experience of enslavement shortly before the Civil War by connecting it to local history, as he and his family lived in the region of Virginia where, a generation earlier, Nat Turner had led an uprising that terrified white enslavers and solidified their commitment to maintaining the practice of slavery. The author also provides a detailed explanation of how the United States Colored Troops were established and how they fit into the military and racial hierarchy of the North. The book, the first in a planned trilogy about Parson, offers an insightful and informative look at a crucial piece of history through the experience of a single person. Mason presents the book as a novel, but readers are likely to experience the book more as a biographical or historical work than as a piece of fiction. The narrative centers documentary evidence and historical context as much as plot, and there is no dialogue. The characters’ actions are generally described rather than dramatized (“Parson and his brothers devised passive resistance by damaging equipment, working slowly, and keeping their human rights and religious beliefs alive”). While the book is effective as a history, as a novel it has its shortcomings.
This family-inspired history tells a compelling story while straddling genres.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2022
ISBN: 9780999133118
Page Count: 233
Publisher: PublishDrive
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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