A novel of psychological depth that’s occasionally bogged down by its science focus.
A man wrestling with alcoholism attempts to revolutionize the predatory pharmaceutical industry in Midlam’s novel.
Tom Glass has a dream to reform the pharmaceutical industry by making prescription drugs affordable, especially for the impoverished workers in developing countries who manufacture them. Endeavoring to discover untapped medicinal resources in the Amazon jungle, Tom struggles to balance his grand ambitions with a severe alcohol addiction that’s devastated his family and relationships. After a disastrous business meeting and the sudden loss of his grandmother, Tom commits to sobriety, determined to reclaim his life and make his family proud. In the process, he meets the woman of his dreams, Claire De Abreu, and embarks on a months-long jungle expedition to find a new life-changing drug. Aided by groundbreaking artificial intelligence tools that can help him research plants and their makeups, Tom sets forth to change the world—only to be foiled by others, and sometimes himself. Set primarily in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Peru, Midlam’s novel provides a harrowing, deeply accurate account of the agonizing cravings and psychological battles inherent to the recovery process: “I found order from chaos. And now the invisible hand is dragging me back down to hell.” At the same time, the narrative delivers sharp social commentary on an industry that bilks sick people for profit while its low-wage laborers can’t afford the very medicines they produce, an insight enriched by the author’s own professional background in global pharmacy initiatives. The story also insightfully touches on global wealth disparity, corporate greed, and the human condition in general. While the text occasionally overexplains the chemistry behind the drugs and drifts into tangents while discussing psychedelics like ayahuasca, the novel ultimately succeeds as an intimate study of a tortured soul finding redemption.
A novel of psychological depth that’s occasionally bogged down by its science focus.Pub Date: July 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798901742174
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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