A somewhat scattered but endearing romp.
In Ferrone’s novel, an adult high school dropout earning her GED reflects on life’s lessons.
Twenty-nine-year-old Doreen Kablowski’s unique take on life shines through in the autobiography she’s writing as a requirement to get her high school equivalency degree. Although she grew up in Orlando, Florida, she writes of not having “a Disney-type of experience when I was growing up as a little girl…it would have been better if I had no father because there was nothing magical about him.” She’s in recovery as a glue-huffing addict; she hasn’t done it for more than a year, but she started at age 6. “All’s I know is that the shouting and crashing and hiding and running all felt a little less bad with a hit of rubber cement.” After dropping out of school in ninth grade, her life winds through a marriage and a life in the Berkshires, through a string of bad relationships, and onto a Greyhound bus back to her home city. Things take a detour after a love-at-first-sight meeting with Augusto, an undocumented worker at a Wawa convenience store in Jacksonville, Florida. Later, on the way to Orlando alone, she meets a kind older man named Rajiwho takes her to his ashram; there they meet Saul, the cousin of the ashram’s deceased founder. This unlikely trio form a strong bond and move to Orlando together, where Doreen and Raji join Narcotics Anonymous and Doreen gets a job playing Snow White at Disney World, all while struggling to move forward in her life. Readers may find the narrative structure of Ferrone’s novel to be confusing at times, with its conversational, stream-of-consciousness style, but the approach does convey Doreen’s perspective well. The realistic details of her life as a Disney princess can be amusing: “As Snow White you’re not supposed to haul off and punch somebody in the face even if they have it coming because it could scare the kids.” Overall, Ferrone’s protagonist proves to be an engaging character, and readers will root for her success as she struggles to get her life together.
A somewhat scattered but endearing romp.Pub Date: March 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781990700286
Page Count: 195
Publisher: Life to Paper Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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