Other people write with words; Landis seems to write with mercury.
A dazzling cycle of stories revolving around a complicated, fascinating, talented young badass.
You have to hand it to Rainey Royal, a character who will not be denied. She came into the world a friend of the protagonist in Landis’ 2009 debut, Normal People Don’t Live Like This. By 2014, she’d gotten herself a whole book, titled Rainey Royal, of course. Now she’s the point around which a volume billed as the third installment in the Rainey Royal Cycle revolves. The stories here span the years from 1947 to 1987 and add depth to characters and events introduced in the earlier books, though it’s not strictly necessary to have read them. The first story, "La Nounou," peeks into the childhood of Rainey’s father, Howard, during a summer he spent in Paris in the care of a reckless nanny. “Howard Royal, eleven and two months, sat on his parents’ bed and watched his nounou at his mother’s dressing table draw a ruby lipstick over her opulent lower lip. His own mouth hung open, a chalice of joy and shock.” This way of using words almost like gems is Landis’ trademark. The title story is next, starring Rainey’s aunt Laurette Barbanel back in 1959, when she’s the 23-year-old minder of a stroke victim whose blossoming bruises indicate something very bad about her husband; unfortunately, the only word left in the woman’s brain is “Wunderbar!” We see Rainey for the first time in the third story, “Embouchure,” set in 1969, and get to know Howard as the extremely louche jazz musician he grew up to be. In subsequent stories, we encounter Rainey as a talented but self-destructive artist with a broken moral compass. Subsequent stories follow the long trail of abuse Rainey endures as a preteen as well as the complexities of her relationship with her mother, who abandons her to join an ashram. In “Mr. Apology,” a story set in 1980 about a (real-world) art project in which anyone can leave a message apologizing for something they’ve done, Rainey says she isn’t sorry for a gunpoint robbery she and her best friend pulled off as teens; she definitely hasn’t aged out of her badness. Her current project is making tapestries festooned with tiny objects she’s stolen. That Rainey.
Other people write with words; Landis seems to write with mercury.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781641297325
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Soho
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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