A mostly successful romp featuring Christian lore and a love of animals.
In this comic novel, a man rescues the pets of vanished owners.
Larry Dinkelman is 34 and living with his mother when the rapture occurs. The virtuous ascend to heaven in “small tornados of whirling feathers,” but others aren’t so lucky: “mean-spirited and hurtful people exploded into flames.” Others remain on Earth who “knew they weren’t angels, and…were currently highly motivated not to be jerks.” Apparently, all dogs go to heaven, but plenty of other household pets are left behind. Larry and his mother, Marjorie, see an opportunity for a new business: They’ll rescue the pets of vanished owners. Larry mostly saves cats, and he’s scheduled to pick up a yowling Siamese when he meets Marcel Westmoreland, a 15-year-old looking for a job. Marcel’s father is a pastor, but his mother, the assistant pastor, was the one taken up. Larry and Marcel hit it off right away; Larry provides the wisecracks and Marcel, the brainy asides and $10 words. Meanwhile, Abigail, a televangelist, is trying to soothe her followers, drum up donations, and keep a secret: Her husband, Aaron, vanished in flames. When a friend of Marcel’s miraculously finds a dog, Abigail becomes convinced that the canine can help save her church: “They want a dog and hope for the future,” she says of her followers. The plot rumbles toward a showdown to decide whether Larry or Abigail should care for the world’s only pooch. Rice prioritizes the novel’s comedic tone, but occasional moments of sincerity soften its wry edge. A large and colorful cast of characters fills the novel, and their experiences and coping mechanisms in the rapture-altered world give the story a welcome variety of perspectives. The book’s moral world is simple—kindergarten teachers go to heaven, for example, and 200 members of Congress go to hell. Although the moments of humor hit more often than not, the sheer quantity of jokes inevitably leads to some duds. Larry’s jocularity helps hide his fear and unease, but at times, his insistence on comedy makes the overall story feel glib. Fortunately, Marcel’s character brings the emotional ballast the tale needs to stay steady.
A mostly successful romp featuring Christian lore and a love of animals.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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