Gripping, realistic prose often renders this tragic tale exquisite.
In Thomas’ novel, two people grapple with the aftereffects of their childhood abuse.
Though he warns his mother to lock her doors and windows each night, police officer Paul Rilke knows that “the real danger, statistically speaking,” is inside the home. This observation held true for Lea Johnson, who was neglected by a checked-out alcoholic mother and sexually abused at 13 by her father’s friend, and for Paul himself, who grew up on a dairy farm in rural Michigan while being regularly whipped by his dad. (He witnessed this hard man shoot his entire herd of cows; Paul’s father also expected him to drown newborn kittens.) Living in trauma’s shadow, Paul and Lea now struggle in their respective marriages. Lea, a medical researcher and mother, experiences guilt while euthanizing lab mice, yet she’s felt detached from her husband, Jay, ever since he was beaten and disfigured in a random attack. Paul is sure that his wife, Jules, a fellow victim of abuse, is just taking a temporary break from him. Strangely, Paul met Lea once when they were children; upon seeing her accurately hit a can with her grandpa’s Mauser rifle, Paul admired the “mousy” yet “gutsy” girl. Their paths cross again when Lea calls the police after a house break-in, and an attraction tentatively blooms, but there’s no easy path to happiness for either person. Thomas’ writing pummels readers as the novel’s harrowing events rapidly pile up. The narrative is harsh and uncomfortable, but the author’s prose is strangely beautiful. Lea’s rapist has a voice like “deep secret music”; a fawn with spots that “gleamed like a band of fallen stars” is shot dead. The environment often emerges in lyrical, stark images; a cornfield has “trampled matchsticks of dried cornstalks,” and the immaculately maintained yards in Lea’s suburb are “pocked with dejected patches of frost-bitten brown.” The author’s damaged characters are compelling but not necessarily likable. A protective guardian, Lea exhibits little warmth and can’t truly love anyone. Nurturing Jay participates in a questionable deer cull. Rescued from a violent father, Jules lays hands on Paul. While only the empathetic Paul has escaped his past relatively unscathed, readers will still root for the brave Lea, her innocence snuffed out far too early.
Gripping, realistic prose often renders this tragic tale exquisite.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781646036783
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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