A gripping tale about a devastated mother trying to find justice for her daughter.
In this novel, a woman struggles to rebuild her life after a violent tragedy exposes her family’s deep dysfunction.
On the surface, Jana Spencer lives an unremarkable small-town life. She works as a grant writer at a health clinic and worries about her teenage children: sullen, game-addicted Kyle, 18, a high school senior, and his vivacious sister, LaRissa, a 15-year-old freshman. Jana and her husband, Don, a handsome mechanic, were high school sweethearts, and her best friend, Sarah, lives next door. The cracks start to show when Jana gets a call alerting her that her daughter was absent from school that day. LaRissa isn’t at home or with any of her friends, and doesn’t answer her phone—in fact, no one has seen her since she attended a church social the night before. Kyle denies knowing anything, but seems to be acting strangely. After a sleepless night with no sign of LaRissa, Don calls the police to report her missing. The family members’ fear and anxiety only escalate the tensions between them. Jana starts sleeping in the guest room while Don and Kyle nearly come to blows. The police suspect Kyle isn’t telling them the truth. Then they find LaRissa’s abandoned purse and phone and figure “something must have happened” to her (“Teen girls don’t leave their phones behind voluntarily”). When they discover her body, it seems as if things can’t get much worse—but this is just the beginning. Most of the story is told from Jana’s point of view, with a few scenes focused on the case’s lead detective, Alphonse Simmons. As she comes to the realization that her life is a lie, Jana is sometimes tiresome and sometimes brave, ringing true to American motherhood: doing laundry, fixing dinner, putting up with her own hypercritical mother, arranging LaRissa’s funeral instead of her 16th birthday celebration. Jana’s journey—from collapsing in shock and drowning her guilt in wine to determining to learn the truth no matter what, doggedly pursuing retribution for LaRissa’s torment, and finding the courage to create a new life of purpose—is ultimately moving. With characters that are mostly well drawn, lifelike dialogue, and brisk pacing, Kovar’s novel is a compelling read that’s hard to put down.
A gripping tale about a devastated mother trying to find justice for her daughter.Pub Date: May 21, 2023
ISBN: 979-8393676186
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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
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