An unpredictable story about childhood, fate, and fiction, written with warmth and a light touch.
In Edgington’s sequel novel, a high-achieving schoolboy submits a short story for an assignment, and the grade that he receives comes back to haunt him.
Fifteen-year-old Jack Hankins is used to being at the top of the class, so when he receives an F for a creative-writing assignment, breaking his run of A’s, he’s more than a little confused. The nine-line story that he submitted presented a brief scene of a boy running away from an unnamed person. In real life, Jack was adopted by a wealthy, caring family, and he seems like the last person who would flee his good life. Soon, the shocking grade begins to materialize in all corners of his life. For example, during an art class, he finds, to his horror, that he’s unwittingly covered his canvas with large red F’s, and it begins to seem like he’s suffering from mental illness. Then his friends and family are drawn into a series of increasingly peculiar occurrences; at one point, for example, red F’s appear in a video game that his good friend Ishvara is playing. It soon becomes obvious that something is fundamentally disrupting the nature of reality itself. Edgington’s debut novel, Happy Jack (2018), was concerned with Jack’s spiritual and emotional awakening as a child, and it was aimed at a younger audience. This time around, Jack is older, and the narrative has matured with him, transitioning from innocence to experience in a way not dissimilar to that in Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. In this second novel, Happy Jack itself becomes a book within a book, taking the form of a sacred text that Jack needs to track down in order to understand his own identity. It’s an intriguing experiment that considers the roles of the character, the author, and fiction itself, and the narrative drifts between fantasy, bildungsroman, and surrealism in an ultimately accessible way.
An unpredictable story about childhood, fate, and fiction, written with warmth and a light touch.Pub Date: March 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9980338-2-2
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.
Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love.
Bree is a friendly but standoffish bookstore owner who keeps everyone she knows at arm’s length, from guys she meets in bars to her friends. Mikki is a settled-in-her-routines divorced mother of two, happily a mom, gift-shop owner, and co-parent with her ex-husband, Perry. And Ashley is a young, very-much-in-love bakery owner specializing in muffins who devotes herself to giving back to the community through a nonprofit that helps community members develop skills and find jobs. When the women meet drooling over a boardwalk storefront that none of them can afford on her own, a plan is hatched to divide the space in three, and a friendship—and business partnership—is born. An impromptu celebration on the beach at sunset with champagne becomes a weekly touchpoint to their lives as they learn more about each other and themselves. Their friendship blossoms as they help each other, offering support, hard truths, and loving backup. Author Mallery has created a delightful story of friendship between three women that also offers a variety of love stories as they fall in love, make mistakes, and figure out how to be the best—albeit still flawed—versions of themselves. The men are similarly flawed and human. While the story comes down clearly on the side of all-encompassing love, Mallery has struck a careful balance: There is just enough sex to be spicy, just enough swearing to be naughty, and just enough heartbreak to avoid being cloying.
A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-778-38608-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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