A novel that clocks in at almost 400 pages shouldn’t feel like a detailed outline, but this one often does.
In her second novel, Silver takes her protagonist—who resembles Ruth Bader Ginsburg—from a humble start in Brooklyn to the Supreme Court.
Justice Sylvia Olin Bernstein grew up in a working-class family, went to an elite law school at a time when few women were admitted, and built a career fighting for civil rights—especially rights for women—before ascending to the highest court in the land. In a memoir found after her death, our protagonist begins her story in 1949, when her father’s cousin comes to live with her family. Mariana survived Auschwitz, and her belief that the American system of laws—unlike Germany’s—could forestall genocide is one of the things that gets Sylvia thinking about justice. When the rabbi presiding over her mother’s funeral says that women don’t count to make a minyan, she begins to think about equality for women. When she’s at Harvard, her own pregnancy almost puts an abrupt end to her education. After this, fighting for women’s rights will become her life’s work. Although Silver has created a character of world-historical importance, she places her on a very small stage, surrounded by a very small cast. Almost everyone Sylvia interacts with will become a significant person in her life. This is a serious limitation that doesn’t work to the book’s benefit. And to be clear: Small doesn’t mean intimate. Even though this is a first-person recollection, Sylvia remains something of a cypher. Sylvia’s relationship with Mariana evolves over the course of the novel, but her husband, her best friend, and her daughter seem like useful accessories rather than real people. Most importantly, the author’s choice to eschew interactions with minor characters—her peers at Harvard, her colleagues at every stage of her career, judges at various levels of the judiciary—and elide years at a time make it seem like winning landmark victories for women and serving on the Supreme Court were not so hard at all for a Jewish woman born in the 1930s.
A novel that clocks in at almost 400 pages shouldn’t feel like a detailed outline, but this one often does.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780593331088
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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