A frightening novel about an unthinkable future elevated by a very sophisticated protagonist.
In Gagliastro’s dystopian novel, a young nonbinary person fights for survival when the United States is overtaken by a totalitarian government.
Before the advent of the Divided, an oppressive regime that institutes a culture of rape and mandatory sexual slavery, Dime was a smart, perceptive student. Kicked out of the house at age 16 for wearing a dress, he nonetheless got through college and even spent time in France as a translator. But the burden of student loans and low salaries took its toll, and he looked for “sugar daddies” to help financially. Dime identifies as queer and nonbinary but says he can pass for a straight, cisgender male. When the United States is hit with a piece of reactionary legislation called “the Bill,” fascism reigns, resulting in scores of deaths, mainly among LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities. Dime survives as people in this hellish reality are divided into the categories of Minors and Elders, based on age. Minors are poor and middle-class; Elders purchase Minors at auction and keep them as sexual slaves. (“When the Law allows you to do something, more people do it than you would expect.”) Dime has had seven sugar daddies in the past and is now on his third Elder. Minors are executed after serving their third Elder, putting Dime in a precarious position—but a rumor that the West Coast is still free offers a glimmer of hope. Gagliastro’s chilling novel about a nightmarish future pushes right-wing politics to terrifying extremes and tells a raw but perceptive story about the resulting victims. The viciousness of the regime is over the top, and some of the descriptions of violence and degradation are excessive. But the bulk of the novel provides first-person insights into being queer, before and after the revolution, that are razor sharp, timely, and written with a great deal of thought behind them. Dime is in an impossible situation, but he’s a dynamic, enterprising character whose perceptiveness about the world elevates the story to an impressive, convincing level.
A frightening novel about an unthinkable future elevated by a very sophisticated protagonist.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9798218254834
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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