A character-driven, entertaining, albeit unsurprising tale where evil forces get the boot.
Abuse victims conquer their fears with equal parts magic and friendship in this occult-tinged feminist revenge novel.
After getting her jaw split open by her abusive evangelical husband, Trent, Lissa pours her savings into procuring a stay at The Lavender Center, a safe haven for domestic abuse and human trafficking survivors. Situated in the scenic woods outside Cleveland, Ohio, the tranquil mansion boasts all manner of unconventional healing services: “reiki, shamanic healing, akashic record retrieval, hypnotherapy, yoga, life coaching, hydrotherapy, massage, heat therapy, therapeutic dance, somatic breathwork, and weekly treks to a salt cave to detox with a gong bath.” She’s driven there by her mother, Pauline, a psychologist whose unconcealed disapproval of TLC’s “woo-woo” ethos doesn’t outweigh her love for her daughter. Lissa is greeted by TLC proprietors Doreen and Glenda, whose warmth and kindness set her immediately at ease. Things get even brighter when Lissa meets her roommate, Annika. Their friendship is bolstered by the fact that the new roomie can read minds and cast spells; she’s a witch, and so are Doreen and Glenda. With Annika’s help, Lissa learns to actualize her beloved late father’s refrain, “Allow yourself a little magic.” But before she can cast a spell to banish her abuser, she has to cast aside her own self-doubt. “Anxiety is a magic killer,” Annika’s wise teacher, Inga, warns. An omniscient narrator floats among characters, allowing each their own arc. Looking past the novel’s moralistic tone (which makes for occasionally unnatural dialogue) and the main plotline’s formulaic structure, Knox offers a lucidly written, well constructed, and affirming story of friendship and recovery. Young adult readers in particular are sure to enjoy its neat ending and positive message. It’s a fun, redemptive read, even if it rarely strays outside the lines.
A character-driven, entertaining, albeit unsurprising tale where evil forces get the boot.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781952224430
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Kallisto Gaia Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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