An unforgettable cluster of entertaining, topical, and hard-hitting stories.
This debut collection of flash fiction satirizes politics, pop culture, and self-expressionism.
The title of “Beware of the Charlatan,” an early entry in this book, gets straight to the point. The Charlatan is a leader who proclaims that Pi is simply 3.14, not an irrational number; anyone who disagrees with that or whatever he preaches is demonically possessed. Several characters in these 19 stories hold similar positions of power over others. These minityrants include politicians and a domineering village head. In “The Empathy Development Experiment,” Dr. Singh subjugates his test subject—a convicted murderer. Fullah ridicules attention hounds on social media as well as those who idolize status symbols or other humans. The author also tackles serious topics, like misogyny and racial and sexual discrimination. For example, “The Politician,” written in response to the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, follows a family man whose plan to outlaw abortion has a disturbing motive. Like most satire, these condensed tales revel in dark humor, and many take unsettling turns that end in violence and/or death. But there are touches of additional genres as well. The SF “Across the Universe,” for one, showcases a NASA astronomer trying to form an emotional connection with newly contacted aliens. “The Anti-Incubus” plays like a horror story, featuring a diabolical presence that seemingly invades dreams.
Many of Fullah’s stories abandon subtlety; the villainous source of corruption tends to be an amoral politician or a narcissistic celebrity. In the case of “A Village With Only Men,” the narrator opens blatantly with: “I hated women. They had ruined my life. A misogynist? Incel? I gladly accepted those labels.” The author doesn’t often veil the satirical target; in “The American Dream,” Vlad’s scheme against citizens in a New England town begins with using a local physician to create a host of oxycodone addicts. Nevertheless, certain stories take a more understated approach. In “Life in Blue,” for example, Penelope can’t see the color blue and strives to see what others can; it’s a cutting, critical assessment on conformity and waning individuality. The collection’s most discernible theme is, unexpectedly, isolation, either by choice or circumstances. In one tale, a popular violinist further separates himself from his starry-eyed fans by convincing them to turn on one another; in another tale, Lyla, who’s grown weary of adjusting her “multiple identities” to suit others, prefers solitude. A few stories might have been even better if they were slightly longer. That’s certainly true for the hilarious “Ancestors,” in which the afterlife may not be all it’s purported to be. The narrator spends posthumous days in the cosmos with his late ancestors, people of clashing cultures and personalities whose perpetually annoying traits could spark more enjoyable scenes.
An unforgettable cluster of entertaining, topical, and hard-hitting stories.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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