A consideration of evangelical Christianity that blends sublimely with a droll coming-of-age tale.
In Kirk’s debut novel, an American teen traverses his high school years while struggling to hold on to his Christian faith.
It’s 2000, and 14-year-old Isaac Siena Jr. is now a freshman in high school. As a conservative evangelical Christian, he faces numerous temptations in the secular school he attends. He (mostly) listens to Christian music, resists sexually laced thoughts about women, and tries to stick to a profanity-free vocabulary. All the while, Isaac is still tormented by the loss of his father years ago in a fatal car accident and the almost certainty that his non-Christian dad is in Hell. As high school passes by, the boy maintains cherished relationships with fellow Christians, including girls he may grow attracted to. He questions aspects of his religion, such as women not being considered as equals and homosexuality being outright condemned. He finds himself swayed by secular media and impious desires; as adulthood inches closer, Isaac must decide if he wants to leave his evangelical world behind. The bulk of Kirk’s narrative, which closely follows all four years of Isaac’s high school career, consists of theological debates. Sometimes they are internal, with an inner voice often chastising Isaac (its preferred refrain is the hilariously blunt “REGRET!”). In other instances, Isaac engages in Christian-themed discussions face to face or via the once-popular AOL Instant Messenger service. Although the author layers this story with humor, he meticulously examines Christianity as well; Isaac’s belief system, for example, seemingly holds women responsible for any and all sexual conduct (even when a man initiates it). This all comes through the teen’s endearing narration; he persistently apologizes for slip-ups (such as swearing), drops endless references to early 21st-century pop culture, and, along with many of his Christian pals, spells out forbidden words or simply replaces them with innocuous terms like gosh darn.
A consideration of evangelical Christianity that blends sublimely with a droll coming-of-age tale.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781735492643
Page Count: 314
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.
The true story of Axis diplomats detained in the U.S. at the start of World War II is transformed into a dazzling historical novel set at a sumptuous West Virginia hotel.
Bestselling YA fantasy author Stiefvater’s adult debut introduces a writer whose prodigious imagination and distinctive prose style have combined to create a novel that will remind readers of why they fell in love with reading in the first place. At its center is the captivating June Hudson, an erstwhile Appalachian orphan who was taken in by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, owners of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, a high-society retreat built over underground mineral springs. At his death, the patriarch bequeathed ownership to his playboy son, Edgar, but made June the general manager, as she had spent her life learning the business—and also shared with Gilfoyle Sr. a rare gift relating to the “sweetwater” springs, a fantastical element of this otherwise realistic novel. Aside from the magical waters and a few other fanciful details, Stiefvater’s fictional world is based on extensive research into high-end hotels of the period, creating a version of luxury so appealing that readers will wish they could check into the Avallon and stay on indefinitely. In fact, the novel revolves around the true meaning of luxury. To June, it has nothing to do with wealth; it is more connected to joy, and to the book’s title: “June had long ago discovered that most people were bad listeners; they thought listening was synonymous with hearing. But the spoken was only half a conversation. True needs, wants, fears, and hopes hid not in the words that were said, but in the ones that weren’t, and all these formed the core of luxury.” Also brilliantly managed is the rest of the ensemble cast: sexy FBI agents; June’s inimitable staff; the delegations of Japanese, Germans, and Italians detained at the hotel, some quite nasty, but among them a strange, special, totally silent child. And on top of all this, a delicious love story!
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593655504
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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