A sensitively crafted history of pioneers and immigrants for American history enthusiasts.
Family history becomes intertwined with the realities of crossing the Oregon Trail in Kellebrew’s historical novel.
In 1852, Marilla Washburn’s family follows the Oregon Trail and experiences its harshness, suffering the loss of Marilla’s brother Henry and enduring cholera along the way. At 15 years of age, Marilla marries John Black, an Irishman who escaped an alcoholic father to sail to Oregon. John and Marilla enjoy a gentle courtship and a happy marriage. Soon, their story becomes intertwined with that of Marilla’s brother Walter, the first of her siblings to be born in Washington territory. He’s a gunslinger, drunkard, and idealist; the author follows him through his marriage to an Indigenous woman named Little Frogs to a stint prospecting for gold in Alaska. Kellebrew’s book is part memoir, part history, and part fiction, blended together in a series of vignettes and scenes that draw the interlinked characters in her family history together. (“I suppose Walter’s bones lie there to this day, one neat bullet hole punched through his skull.”) Interspersed throughout the text are the words of her ancestors Walter Meikle and John Meikle, framing Kellebrew’s exploration of the latter half of the 19th century through the eyes of her own family. Readers will enjoy the lyrical writing style (“We saw the river take him, Henry my brother, my mother’s son, and yank him downstream like an autumn leaf”), though occasionally the flicking from past to present, and between first-person narration and third-person imaginings in the author’s voice, is somewhat jarring. This approach does, however, allow space for Kellebrew to pontificate on the various themes that are woven into the narrative, including Indigenous rights and the ownership of land, homelessness, and the strength exhibited by her forebears in taking these journeys. The whole book is drawn together by the threads of movement and worldbuilding as Kellebrew observes, “In the grand scheme of things, civilization is the anomaly, permanent habitation the aberration.”
A sensitively crafted history of pioneers and immigrants for American history enthusiasts.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781963115277
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Unsolicited Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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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