An endearing and fascinating perspective on a uniquely volatile and dangerous childhood.
In Wallack’s novel, a brother and sister survive a shocking upbringing of drugs, cults, and neglect.
In 1979, Sienna (CeeCee) and Siddharta (Siddhi) Jones are 6 and 5 years old, respectively, living with their father, Jackson, in Miami—more specifically, in Xanadu. That’s the name of their house where Jackson sells drugs, leads a sex cult, and rants about the Bhagavad Gita. With their mother dead from an overdose (and their grandmother and aunt proving to be equally disappointing parental figures), they fend for themselves, watching, year after year, as different “Babies” (Jackson’s term for his sex-addicted followers-turned-drug-mules) come and go from Xanadu. They try in vain to get themselves adopted by a traditional family and even forge papers to enroll in the local elementary school, but all their efforts are in vain as Jackson’s drug-dealing cult only grows in size and ambition, slowly devouring the children’s innocence in the process. As the 1980s draw to a close and the siblings reach high school age, the author moves from CeeCee’s first-person narration to a shifting perspective as the adolescents come to terms with their strange, toxic father and begin to wonder how they could possibly move forward in the world without him. Manic walks through hurricanes, deadly overdoses, and even sexual assault are all parts of these children’s brutal world, but Wallack cleverly walks a tightrope in her writing, balancing the horrors with a child’s unwavering imagination and naïve sense of wonder (moments in which CeeCee instinctively shepherds Siddhi away from orgies are at once shocking, tender, and comical). The book’s latter half feels more aimless, unsure of where its characters should be heading, but CeeCee’s perspective remains surprising and engaging. It’s through her that the author develops a distinctive and emotionally rich voice delivering succinct observations as devastating as any of the horrible events themselves, such as her simple summary of how she felt others saw her family and Xanadu: “We were degenerate aliens. No matter what or where.”
An endearing and fascinating perspective on a uniquely volatile and dangerous childhood.Pub Date: March 9, 2024
ISBN: 9798892125710
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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