A surprising and enjoyable novel about camaraderie and letting go.
A sick woman asks her friends to help her die in Wasyliszyn’s debut novel.
Opal Slepecki has pancreatic cancer. Though she is not yet 55, Opal’s pancreas is “gold-star jacked up,” as she phrases it to her three best friends when they come over for drinks and macaroons in her gazebo. Having already exhausted all of her treatment options, Opal has decided the only course left for her is euthanasia—a serious crime in Minnesota—and she needs her friends’ help to do the deed. Her friends are understandably horrified, both by the revelation of her prognosis and by the requests Opal has written on cards and given to them. Luna, the beautiful, cake-baking neck model, has been tasked with collecting brown recluse spiders. Urse, the brash friend with a traumatic childhood and a burgeoning Adderall dependency, must find poison mushrooms. The loyal, possibly depressed Ruby is responsible for the most dramatic ingredient of all: heroin. The friends are worried that Opal has broken with reality—she seems unable to grasp the fact that her husband, Oliver, died six months ago—but they are willing to do whatever they can to help. (Well, almost anything.) As the pals begin their morbid scavenger hunt, a lifetime’s worth of traumas, hang-ups, missed opportunities, and unfulfilled dreams come bubbling to the surface. Shot through with penetrating insights on aging and loss, the novel is ultimately about friendships, particularly long ones. Wasyliszyn wrings plenty of humor out of her wonderfully human characters, particularly the ailing Opal: “Opal woke to the smell of flowers. I must be at my own funeral.” (When she realizes she is merely in a hospital bed, her visiting friends presenting her with a vase of lilacs, she shuts her eyes again, lamenting, “Aw, man, a hospital. The opposite of my funeral.”) In Opal’s case, the end of life is equal parts heist machinations and wry retrospective, with little time for treacly sentimentality.
A surprising and enjoyable novel about camaraderie and letting go.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2024
ISBN: 9798990911000
Page Count: 315
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
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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