A compelling blend of historical portraiture and novelistic flair.
In this final installment of a historical fiction trilogy chronicling the Tudors, young Prince Edward suddenly becomes king and deals with palace intrigue.
When King Henry VIII succumbs to illness, his son, Prince Edward, only 9 years old, ascends to the British throne. Edward is provided counsel by his uncle Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford, who is made his Lord Protector and quickly promoted to the Duke of Somerset. Somerset is a sagacious veteran of the kingdom’s internecine political squabbles, but Edward chafes under his sometimes-prohibitive tutelage. The boy quickly becomes aware that many “bowed to Edward, obsequiously so, but they listened to Somerset.” Meanwhile, Tom Seymour, Somerset’s brother and another of Edward’s uncles, slyly manipulates the child king into endorsing a marriage between him and the Queen Dowager, an opportunistic bid to seize the reins of power, possibly by violence. As Edward grows ill and his reign looks to be a brief one, he frets anxiously that the succession to the throne of his Roman Catholic sister, Mary, will usher in a wave of “popish superstition,” a fear powerfully portrayed by Wertman: “Edward would fulfill his destiny. He owed it to God, who had entrusted him with removing superstition from his men’s prayer. He owed it to his people, as their king.” The author’s research is magisterial—this is a worthy history lesson wrapped in a compelling drama. The genealogical intricacies of the plot can become overwhelming, but the story as a whole is conveyed with admirable lucidity and emotional poignancy. The character of Edward is memorable—daunted by responsibilities he struggles to fully comprehend, he rises to the occasion as much as anyone could expect of a child. Wertman offers what everyone should want from historical fiction—rigorously enacted authenticity and gripping literary drama.
A compelling blend of historical portraiture and novelistic flair.Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9971338-7-5
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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