An atmospheric, effectively measured, often bleak tale of fatherhood and accountability with a mystifying finale.
In this 1980s-set novel, a Michigan inmate doing time on a drug rap faces a murder charge and family drama while behind bars.
Clifford Ratz is a longtime pot smoker, much to the chagrin of his parents. Even as a 35-year-old divorced father with two kids, he not only smokes the drug, but sells it as well. It’s hardly surprising when cops discover 20 kilos of marijuana in his car trunk. As this earns him a few years at a notoriously violent prison in the Upper Peninsula, he fears doing time with unpredictable, brutal criminals. But it’s not his fellow inmates he should worry about—it’s the corrupt prison guards. They’re likely the ones behind a stabbing murder, and they quickly point fingers at Clifford. He’ll need some outside help if he plans to beat this charge. Meanwhile, Clifford’s beloved teenage daughter, Sharm, rebels, most notably with her lackluster boyfriend, whom she apparently wishes to marry. There’s little Clifford can do from jail, but with any luck, he’ll score an early release to better protect Sharm. But then how far must Clifford go to ensure her safety and well-being? Den Houter aptly sets the mood for a grim prison tale. For example, Clifford equates the 19th-century prison to Dracula’s castle and has stark memories of the Michigan that’s just outside the walls (“During his teenage years, he…became part of the local drug culture. This was his religion of choice. The high from smoking pot settled nicely in his bones, helped him chill”). Later narrative perspectives steal Clifford’s spotlight, including those of Sharm; the administrative law judge who investigates the prison murder; and the protagonist’s attorney for the crime. As this deliberately paced book implies, Clifford (and others) may feel shackled at home, devoting his life to a sometimes-unruly family. The author’s straightforward but lucid prose reveals the cold, largely hopeless jail, although she skillfully tones down the violence and censors harsh profanities. The final act veers off on an unexpected, fairly baffling turn that will leave readers mulling the ending.
An atmospheric, effectively measured, often bleak tale of fatherhood and accountability with a mystifying finale.Pub Date: May 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-954786-95-0
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Mission Point Press
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.
A dark fantasy set on the Yale campus ends with a bang.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern of Lethe House, one of Yale’s storied secret societies, has been to hell and back. That was in Hell Bent (2023), the middle book in Bardugo’s Ninth House trilogy, where the secret societies wield not just temporal power but magic as well. Hell Bent ended with Alex and her friends rescuing her crush, mentor, and fellow Lethe officer, Daniel “Darlington” Arlington V, from eternal torment. One small wrinkle: The demon Golgarot used Alex’s blood to wedge a door open between Hell and New Haven, and his minions are slipping through. Also, one of the group has turned into a vampire, and Darlington is now half demon. “He’d given up some part of himself to preserve the rest of his human soul. He’d become both prisoner and warden.” As the final book opens, the exhausted crew are hunting yet another monster. They can’t keep this up forever; they will have to find a way to close the portal. Alex has the energetic, driven melancholy of the hard-boiled, dark fantasy heroine she is. She believes “magic is real, but safe is make-believe,” as her roommate puts it. An open hellmouth, a supportive scholar, a vampire whose story arcs precariously toward redemption, a gentleman fiend who gets literally horny when aroused, a California girl with rare supernatural powers who cracks wise as she fights fiends—the series has a lot in common with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spawn, but Bardugo’s way with words and her keen social observation keep the book from feeling derivative. A demon’s classic New England house is decorated with “ruthlessly inoffensive watercolor seascapes”; Lethe’s board president “wore the new uniform of Wall Street: a dress shirt, khakis, and a fleece with a Yale Y embroidered over the heart, as if he were on his way to a hostile takeover followed by some light rock climbing.” Will Alex and her friends get the door shut without losing Darlington? Bardugo injects her protagonist with such a convincing mix of cynicism and hope that failure seems like a distinct possibility.
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781250884312
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.
The World Trade Center attacks are at the center of an intricate, twisty family drama spanning decades in both directions.
“You could brace for your sister to die of a terminal illness, only to have your healthy sibling killed in a random car wreck. You could carry a baby safely to term and then, on a bright blue day in September, walk into a building that collapsed beneath your feet.” Or you could be a character in a Jodi Picoult novel and face all of the above and much, much more. Fans of My Sister’s Keeper (2004) will notice a reference to that novel in the preceding quote and be glad to hear a character from that book is back. During the Covid-19 pandemic, former teenage delinquent Jesse Fitzgerald, now a detective on the Providence, Rhode Island, police force, meets Molly Ambrose, a 19-year-old prodigy who runs the state’s emergency preparedness and response program. “Despite the fact that there were fifteen years between us and we both had enough baggage to fill a cargo hold,” as Molly puts it, the two fall madly in love. The baggage she’s referring to includes, on her side, a mother who died on 9/11 when Molly was less than three months old. Picoult supplies her signature delightful banter and gift for depicting passion and romance to win the reader’s sympathy for this possibly questionable match between dedicated public servants, whose favorite game at bedtime is “Who can think of the most terrifying worst-case scenario?” Very little more can be revealed without spoilers, but trigger warnings for this book would be a long list indeed, ranging from suicide and filicide to rape and mental illness (welcome to Picoultland!). Subplots visit evangelical and Navajo cultures as well as the ins and outs of polygraphy. Make sure to read the afterword in which Picoult explains her real-life sources of inspiration.
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780593726259
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
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