A rollicking satire of contemporary motherhood with a speculative twist.
In Imas’ debut novel, a mother of three discovers her animalistic side.
In Straussville, Oregon, motherhood is turning Harriet “Harry” Lime into a monster—literally. She lives with her husband, Theo, with whom she rarely gets to speak or have sex, a 14-year-old daughter who is turning into a woman faster than Harry can handle, and a pair of 3-year-old twins whose potty training ensures the house always smells faintly of urine. In addition to her familial obligations, she has a “pay the bills” job (rather than a career) in marketing, a walking club, and a book club. Plus, there are regular PTA meetings, which have lately been dominated by discussions concerning an expensive statue dedicated to the mothers of Straussville (and designed in secret by PTA president Patrick Terrence, a grandfather whom Harry has hated since he taught her in high school). When Harry gets an early peek at the underwhelming sculpture—which Terrence has drained money from after-school programs to fund—Harry goes into literal beast mode. She transforms into a massive, apelike animal, uproots the offending statue, and drags it into the Straussville Reservoir. Harry wakes up in the reservoir with no memory of what’s happened, though she can’t shake the feeling she’s responsible for the damage. “[A] single idea came forward and stood apart from it all,” she thinks. “Maybe I hadn’t laid waste to the schoolyard, the old fountain, and the statue. Maybe some giant…creature had done it. And maybe that giant creature had come out of me.” Plenty of neighbors witness the horror, but luckily no one can tie the creature back to her—at least not yet. There are strange uniformed men in town, however, who may be on her trail. What’s more, Harry may not be the only one who is turning into something monstrous.
The novel is driven by Harry’s garrulous narration, which vividly fleshes out her world with descriptions, observations, jokes, and even footnotes. She’s a thoroughly believable suburban mom who balances her sincerity and progressive values with her sometimes-cringey mom humor. Here she praises another mom in the PTA: “She had an autoimmune disorder, I knew, and had gone back to work just weeks after adopting baby Ella. It was the kind of feat that Hercules himself would’ve taken one look at and said, ‘Nah, I’m good.’ ” Here she regrets not helping out another mom who was treated poorly by Terrence: “This didn’t just feel like a Mom-Fail but a Woman-Fail, and in my mind at least, a Friend-Fail too.” That Harry is sometimes hard to take does not make her any less of an achievement. Imas pairs a brilliant premise with a highly memorable narrator, and together they should find a wide readership. The characters are finely drawn, and the speculative aspects of the book are handled quite masterfully. The book takes on not only the hypocrisies of the impossible standards to which mothers are held in America, but also the discourse surrounding those hypocrisies.
A rollicking satire of contemporary motherhood with a speculative twist.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9798988246404
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Mudlark
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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