An affecting story of two men talking their way toward forgiveness.
Two men tell stories of stalled lives, faith, failure, and forgiveness in Ribeiro’s novel.
Two middle-aged men are stranded in an aggressively bland waiting room with no clock, no door handle, and no explanation for why they’re there. Will, an irritable Los Angeles marketing executive suffering professional burnout, the fallout of a divorce, and a thoroughly lapsed Catholic conscience, wants answers immediately. Pete is an unnervingly serene semi-retired carpenter who appears content to wait. Between them is a tank containing a goldfish named Jonah, swimming around a toy treasure chest that opens and closes with mechanical regularity. As the men talk, the room becomes a confessional; Will recounts childhood bullying at Catholic school, the corrosive humiliation of divorce, and the way his faith curdled into anger (“Often, at night in bed, Will would desperately wish, even pray, that he could time-travel back to that moment with Jimmy Bonetti, and break his freaking (sorry, Lord) nose. That would change everything. He wished that wish for a very long time”). Pete’s story unfolds more obliquely—he descended into addiction before coming out on the other side supported by work, marriage, and rediscovered belief. Their rapport swings from comic to combative as the impossibility of escape becomes clear, forcing the men to confront their suspicion that this is more than just a waiting room and that their relationship is deeper than it first seemed. This is a story that questions what it might take to accept grace. The setting nods to Beckett, but the characters’ talk is peppered with references to Dodgers trivia, Monty Python, Star Wars, and consumer tech anxiety. Ribeiro’s dialogue-driven approach keeps the theology grounded in personality and pain, and the pop-cultural chatter demystifies belief rather than dilutes it (as a parable, the novel mostly succeeds by refusing solemnity). At times, the author leans a little too hard on the symbolism, but this brief book’s tight construction, humane curiosity, and willingness to let faith arrive through friction rather than platitudes give it real bite and a surprising measure of joy.
An affecting story of two men talking their way toward forgiveness.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798898354572
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2025
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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