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
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 debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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