A mostly sharp, disturbing debut.
Q: What happens when the fog of war gets inside one's head? A: The military novel gone gothic.
2010. Loyette, a corporal newly assigned to a forward base in Afghanistan, has been tasked with leading a small group in offloading cargo from helicopters. After his brother was killed in action, Loyette—in what he now sees as a gung-ho blunder—left college to join up, and he's mostly marking time until he can go home. The work is lonely, intermittent, often dreary; he and his squad are safe within the walls of the compound but bored and anxious and hypervigilant. Just outside the camp's gates sits the empty husk of a Soviet-era barracks in which, they’re told, a massacre of the occupiers occurred, and—an idle mind being the gothic novelist’s workshop—they decide to make a brief tour; perhaps they can snag a souvenir. While there, Loyette and his men grow disoriented, lose track of time, and a staircase to a basement seems to disappear. Once they emerge, they ignore or explain away the oddity and get back to their stultifying routine, but strange things start happening—inexplicably altered drawings, a notebook disappearing and reappearing (Loyette has been in trouble for acts of too-candid journalism, which is part of how he's ended up here), porcupine quills showing up in odd places, sleepwalking—and then, it seems, the shadows and strangenesses extend beyond them, start to affect everyone on the base. When one of Loyette’s men goes missing, there's only one place he could possibly be. Loyette and another member of the squad feel they have no choice but to attempt a rescue mission...straight down the rabbit hole that is the militia house. At this point, Milas nimbly and delicately balances the book between genres: It would be a relief for Loyette, and for the reader, if we could classify it—label it, defang it—as horror rather than having, agonizingly, to view it as a realistic portrait of a war-damaged mind collapsing in on itself. The novel turns, as the gothic often does, on what happens when one can no longer distinguish inside from out, mind from world, fear from menace.
A mostly sharp, disturbing debut.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781250857064
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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