A crowded paranormal tale with compelling moments.
In Matthews’ horror novel, the ordinary life of an unlucky young man takes a supernatural turn.
Misfortune seems to follow this novel’s unnamed narrator throughout his life. After a brief tenure as a manager at a Chicago menswear store, he gets a job working nights at a gas station; this leads to a mugging that induces a concussion, which results in hefty hospital bills. Soon, he has nowhere to go except his friend Tony’s messy apartment. However, things look up when the narrator gets a job at a meat market—although by this point, readers may wonder what this story of a well-meaning young man’s earnest pursuit of steady work (and a modest social life) has to do with the intriguing title. The catalyst for a story that mixes the spiritual, supernatural, and the mundane is Tony’s sudden death and the narrator’s emergent ability—following a second head injury—to see ghosts. However, his attempt to use this gift to ease the deceased’s transition to the afterlife backfires in a big way. From here, the author gives his nameless protagonist a live-in girlfriend, adopted children, continual money worries, more hospital visits, and—as the title suggests—encounters with werewolves (and a werewolf’s bite). The densely packed story features nearly cartoonish levels of graphic mayhem, as well as body-snatching demons, extraterrestrial carnivore escapees, a gruesome, secret U.S. government plot, and trips to the afterlife realm of Limbo. The narrative also leans lightly, if sporadically, into religious topics, with the narrator wondering at one point “where God was in all of this.” Indeed, Matthews’ account of his protagonist’s spiritual journey feels most authentic when he compassionately ministers to supernatural prisoners as a bogus lay chaplain. It’s disappointing, then, that the Limbo scenes—enlivened by old souls, a seemingly portentous reunion, and a “beautiful” Lucifer exacting judgment on a monstrous evil—are put on the backburner. If a sequel is planned (as seems possible, considering the loose ends left dangling at the end) this engaging setting merits a longer visit.
A crowded paranormal tale with compelling moments.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
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