Strength and love flow through Millner’s story.
What does it take to save your own life?
Millner presents a searing chronicle of generations of Black women in the U.S. as they deal with forces, large and small, depriving them of freedom, dignity, and a sense of self-worth. Spanning the tumultuous years from 1965 to 2004, the stories of Grace, LoLo, and Rae—and their forebears and contemporary relatives—illustrate the battles fought for survival on the domestic front as other struggles played out on the streets and in the workplace. When Grace is cruelly stripped of the protection and guidance of her beloved grandmother, Maw Maw Rubelle, and sent to live with an unsympathetic aunt in Brooklyn, her country ways and spiritual beliefs cannot protect her from the social and class prejudices she encounters there. (The heartbreaking result of Grace’s brief experience of happiness provides the thread binding the three women together.) LoLo, a victim of neglect and sexual violence in her early years, carries secrets and scars of her own. Determined to seek protection and stability in life, LoLo marries a seemingly “good” man and raises a family with him; she is especially determined to protect her daughter from the degradations she suffered at the hands of men and an unwelcoming greater society. Rae, one of LoLo’s two adopted children, senses an emotional reserve in LoLo and is an eyewitness to her mother’s misery in the face of suffocating social conventions and domestic drudgery. As the layers of secrets surrounding LoLo’s and Rae’s circumstances drop away, Millner explores the ways Black women searched out paths to survival for themselves and their families (often at tremendous personal cost). Echoes of determined earlier choices echo in the lives of subsequent generations in Millner’s gripping saga.
Strength and love flow through Millner’s story.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781250276193
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
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
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