A passionate novel hampered by tonal inconsistencies.
A woman struggles to balance her family, her medical career, and a reckless affair in Bici’s novel.
Dr. Opal Collins is hanging by a thread. She is a disorganized but compassionate physician who deeply bonds with her patients at Ocean Hospital. Her husband, Fox, a radiologist at a different hospital, wants her to move into a management position so she’ll have more time to spend with their family. Fox wants another child, but Opal secretly stays on birth control. When the president of Doctors Inc., Ronald Aberdeen, announces that their two hospitals are merging, Opal is presented with an opportunity: Aberdeen promises her a promotion, and the two begin an affair (“we both need to want this. There’s so much at stake.”) Unbeknownst to Opal, Aberdeen wants an in with her politician brother-in-law to leverage his return to conducting medical research in New York. As rumors swirl about the allegations in Aberdeen’s past that forced him to leave New York in the first place, and Opal’s personal life becomes increasingly untenable, Opal struggles to find a way to save her marriage and obtain a less compromised work situation. To do so, she needs to confront a dark secret from her own past. This is the compelling story of a messy, complicated woman who is portrayed very empathetically despite her reckless, self-destructive behavior. Threaded through the plot is a sharp critique of the ongoing corporatization of medical care; it’s the most tonally consistent aspect of a story that struggles to weave together dark comedy and more serious subject matter. Opal’s friendship with a motivational speaker who moonlights as a stripper feels tangential, and the narrative’s attempt to redeem Aberdeen at the end rings false after everything he’s done. It’s hard to discern what’s pulling him and Opal together aside from mutual self-interest—they don’t seem to have much of an emotional connection. The inclusion of sexual abuse in Opal’s past and the Covid-19 pandemic bring a lot of weight to a story that seems to strive for a lighter touch.
A passionate novel hampered by tonal inconsistencies.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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