An interesting debut that has more on its mind than this first-time novelist can successfully embody in fiction.
A writer sells her book to Hollywood and discovers—surprise!—that she is no longer in charge.
Penny Schleeman loves her job teaching English at a public high school in New Haven, but at 33 she’s living in a studio apartment and has to get help from her parents if she needs dental work. “It’s not my fault that it’s not feasible to have a middle-class job anymore,” she tells us. “All I want is to be a teacher.” When her novel about Sylvia, a young woman who transforms into a mermaid, becomes a surprise bestseller, it seems Penny’s money troubles are over. Her new, barracudalike film agent gets her a deal adapting her own book (“the way I make the most cash”), and she quits her job. The catch—and of course there is one—is that Penny has been teamed with two veteran screenwriters who immediately begin to advocate changes that turn Penny’s powerful asexual protagonist, who defeats an evil environmental despoiler, into a love-starved teenager who dies in the end. Penny’s account of her increasingly unhappy stint in Hollywood alternates with chapters from American Mermaid that make palpable how her novel is being travestied (and how some of Sylvia’s conflicts mirror those of her creator). Langbein, a longtime sketch and stand-up comedian, wrings some predictable laughs from the co-writers’ cringingly awful suggestions, but this is familiar stuff; Penny’s wistful recollections of how much she loved teaching are fresher and ring truer. It takes too long for the pace, and readers’ interest, to pick up as some mysterious edits to the master script convince Penny that Sylvia has swum out of her novel to wreak revenge on her enemies. The ambiguous two-part ending teasingly hints that this is possible, and Langbein gives the appealing Penny a shot at happiness on her own terms to wrap up this sharply well-written, but only fitfully engaging tale.
An interesting debut that has more on its mind than this first-time novelist can successfully embody in fiction.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780385549677
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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
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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