A bold and brilliant modern fable of sisterhood, class, and our relationship to the natural world.
In the San Juan Islands off Washington state, two sisters, bonded in the care of their dying mother, are divided by their reaction to a wildlife intruder.
Phillips’ follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Disappearing Earth (2019), again concerns a pair of sisters in a gorgeously evoked, off-the-beaten-track setting, this time with a close focus on the complicated psychology of the sibling relationship. Elena and Sam’s beautiful mother was “an orphan with two toddlers by the time she was twenty-five” and now, not long past her 50th birthday, is dying of causes related to inhaling solvents at the nail salon where she worked. Her daughters toil at the golf club restaurant and in the snack bar on the ferry; their plan is to make ends meet until their mother dies, then sell their house and the valuable land it occupies and leave the island. Phillips opens the novel with an excerpt from the fairy tale “Snow-White and Rose-Red” by the Brothers Grimm: “‘Poor bear,’ said the mother, ‘lie down by the fire, only take care that you do not burn your coat.’” This welcoming response to a wild creature is reflected in Elena’s reaction to a huge bear that shows up outside their front door one day, probably the same one Sam just spied from the deck of the ferry, swimming the channel. Unlike her older sister, Sam is terrified of the creature, and all the more so as Elena begins to feed and court him as a wilderness pet, imagining the bear as a magical lucky charm in their dreary lives. In Sam, her flawed and fascinating point-of-view character, Phillips flexes her writerly finesse and insight, creating a postadolescent working-class heroine full of resentment at all the monied people surrounding her, deeply dependent on her sister, and suspicious of everyone else. The division between the sisters is sharpened by secrets and past trauma that emerge slowly, then explode.
A bold and brilliant modern fable of sisterhood, class, and our relationship to the natural world.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780525520436
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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