A well-told story that leaves some questions unanswered—but in a good way.
A 34-year-old San Diego man is on a date with his ex-fiancee, whom he has never gotten over, when she dies horribly. He then relives the same day over and over again, each time trying to save her life.
Dominic Suarez fell hard for Mia Bell and proposed to her when they were in their early 20s. But then he derailed both their lives by breaking off the engagement. She fled to Chicago and became a teacher; he stayed in San Diego and became a TV producer. Ten years later, he's still obsessed with the one who got away. A chance encounter after she moves back to town leads to a date at the San Diego County Fair. That date goes perfectly—that is, until the ride they are on suffers a catastrophic failure and Mia is killed in a 54 foot fall. Dom is broken by the loss. But when he wakes up the next morning, it is once again the day of their date. He enters a time loop—à la the 1993 movie classic Groundhog Day—where he dedicates himself to helping everyone he comes across and tries to keep Mia from dying, only to fail to save her every day. Authors Fenton and Steinke have created a realistic look at the trauma that reliving the same events multiple times might cause a person as they try to come to terms with the impossible. They also explore the meaning of love, compatibility, and how a person might change—yet remain the same—over the course of a decade or even just a week. Their storytelling is on point, and each version is told from a new angle as Dom mentally works through the situation he's in, trying to grapple with how he can become a better man.
A well-told story that leaves some questions unanswered—but in a good way.Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-0509-8
Page Count: 303
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
Hilarious, grotesque, and standing slightly in the shadow of its sibling.
Awad returns to the world of Bunny (2019), armed with her signature satirical and surrealist flair.
Samantha Heather Mackey has written a novel, and when she arrives on the dreamy and violent campus of Warren University, where she got her MFA, for her book tour, her fellow former students known as the Bunnies kidnap her and confront her about her thinly veiled autobiographical debut. Now the Bunnies are finally getting their say—and, boy, are they talkative. Offering a kaleidoscopic view of what went down before, during, and after the events chronicled in Bunny, the girls can’t contain their rage, disgust, jealousy, boredom, and hurt over Samantha and her novel. Eventually, Aerius, the Bunnies’ “First Boy. First Draft. First Darling.…First humiliation,” cuts in to offer his side of the story: How he came to be; his understanding (and misunderstanding) of the world; and how he causes, circumvents, and fits into the events of and beyond the first novel. Though he avoids the Bunnies (his “Keepers”) at all costs, they yearn and search for him, their finest work—even if you account for his bloody, violent streak. Considering whether Aerius was the town’s deranged murderer, they slyly say, “But ultimately, we simply did not think so, no. Because he’d come from us and we were lovely. As has already been stated.” This novel is at its best when musing about creativity, writing, and “the work”; skewering academia and elitism; and straddling the slippery border between reality and fantasy. Billed as a standalone, it is most successful as a companion to its predecessor, though at times it reveals too much about the mysterious lore and elusive dynamics of the first novel. Awad’s pacing is uneven, but she sticks the landing with a delightfully unexpected and unhinged ending. Her wit, humor, and metafictional prowess are on full display in this prequel, sequel, expanded upside-down revision, or whatever you want to call it.
Hilarious, grotesque, and standing slightly in the shadow of its sibling.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668059869
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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