Smart, bleak, and rare—a wide-eyed stare into the abyss sans hope or hysteria.
A restless schoolteacher journeys to the heart of darkness to prove his worth during the zombie apocalypse.
We’re 15 years into the end of the world and the whole deal sucks for Dr. Jonathan Greenway. The mild-mannered professor was fortunate to be teaching a class for the U.S. Army when the dead began rising from their graves. Now he’s a second-class citizen at a fortified base somewhere in the American Rust Belt, splitting his time teaching “New History” to thankless child soldiers and literally shoveling shit at the biomass factory. As he yearns for a stable life with his girlfriend, Jon’s temper runs afoul of the fascist tinpot dictator that runs the joint, and he’s quickly banished to a rapidly dwindling reconnaissance squad. Not that the “Chum Bums,” as they’re known, are crack soldiers—their commanding officer is still haunted from having to icepick his infant daughter, while the rest are expendable conscripts at best. When surveillance reveals a remote church with the power to instantly kill zombies dead (again), the Bums set out on the treacherous journey to investigate. Beset by the dead as well as the Calaveras, a masked death cult from Mexico, Greenway and his comrades finally manage to reach their goal. At the titular refuge, they find that mad chemist James Warnocky has warped theology, science, and alchemy into an infernal combination, though one that holds promise to perform exactly as promised. It’s a good old-fashioned bone-and-gristle cruncher right up George A. Romero’s alley, but there’s more to it. The writing is crisp, punctuated with military patois and medieval violence while Greenway struggles not just to make sense of the horror, but his own place in it. Much like the experiences found in The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later, what’s wrong in this world is human, not some dark force waiting to ambush a hero with a heart of gold. It’s just us.
Smart, bleak, and rare—a wide-eyed stare into the abyss sans hope or hysteria.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780998892382
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Underground Voices
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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