Beguilingly inventive and edgy tales.
This gruesome collection of short stories explores the perils and pleasures of encounters with the unknown.
“You are entering strange territory,” remarks Schaller in a smart, sinister introduction that cautions readers that any stranger encountered “might be the Stranger”—or rather, the devil himself. Fourteen stories are offered here, many of which draw inspiration from fairy and folktales. In the opening story, “The Five Cigars of Abu Ali,” an old friend returns to tell a tale about his encounter with a genie while in Pakistan. Meanwhile, in “North of Lake Winnipesaukee,” the surviving wolf of a slaughtered pack wreaks vengeance on colonists in the most perverse fashion. The collection also features a trilogy of urban folktales, one of which introduces readers to “the city of rats,” in which the mayor’s beautiful rodent daughter is in search of a suitor. Schaller also has an interest in mechanical devices, and stories like “The Watchmaker” and “Automata” ponder the blurred divide between the human and the artificial. At the close of the volume, the author includes “Story Notes,” in which he reveals his inspiration for each of the tales here. Schaller’s plotlines are devilishly unsettling. In “Wildflowers,” a young boy learns that grazing sheep in certain pastures can cause them to give birth to lambs with cyclopia. As an adult, he knowingly offers his pregnant partner a salad of hand-picked wildflowers—and readers must brace themselves for a horrifying outcome. Similarly, “A Study in Abnormal Physiology,” set in Victorian London, is a Holmes-ian story of botched abortions and stolen fetuses. This is a compelling, fast-paced tale, punctuated by weirdly intriguing, if unsettling, descriptive details: “Pinkish membranes spanned the digits of its hands and feet. Gill slits parted behind its ears, revealing downy frills crimson with oxygenated blood. It lacked obvious genitalia, suggesting a female, but I could not be certain given its erratic development.” Schaller’s writing is not for everyone, but those happy to give it a chance will leave satisfyingly disturbed. The lure of these tales is that anything is possible—and the author does a fine job of keeping readers on a knife’s edge. Fans of Angela Carter’s rewriting of fairy tales will find particular delight in this skillfully written, if grisly, collection.
Beguilingly inventive and edgy tales.Pub Date: March 5, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-59021-744-3
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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