An uneven but ultimately enjoyable tale of Colonial New England.
Grindle presents a historical novel of witchcraft and war in Colonial America.
In the tightknit and often claustrophobic world of a coastal Maine village in 1688, teenage Resolve Hammond lives with her mother, an herbalist whose knowledge is often called on by her neighbors, though some of them are suspicious about the origins of her skills. In the book’s opening chapter, Resolve’s mother is unable to save Avis Hobbs, a woman who has been poisoned by her 10-year-old daughter, Abigail. Abigail develops a fixation on Resolve that threatens to become dangerous, but they face a more immediate threat when leaders of the colony’s militia instigate war against the local Indigenous tribes. Resolve and her mother, who spent time living with one of the tribes during King Philip’s War a decade earlier, attempt to mediate and avert bloodshed, which puts their standing in the town at further risk. The war brings Abigail’s older brother, Thaddeus, back to town, and, as he and Resolve grow close, she learns more about the harm Abigail has done. But a crucial moment brings her into alliance with Abigail and reveals mysteries about the abilities they share. The book’s first half meanders, particularly as it tiptoes around questions of Abigail’s culpability, the supernatural, and various village personalities, but the pacing solidifies by the narrative’s midpoint, when the looming war claims much of the focus—the second half is a page-turner. The often elaborate prose may not appeal to all readers (“A tiny coracle, I bob in her wake as she crosses the village, her long hair a single plait swinging down her back”), though all can appreciate the detailed and evocative imagery that brings the setting to life. Grindle’s approach to the complex historical background of the story rewards knowledgeable and curious readers without overwhelming the plot. The book explores questions of freedom and independence, offering a compelling perspective on the earliest days of New England’s history.
An uneven but ultimately enjoyable tale of Colonial New England.Pub Date: April 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781960610010
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Casa Croce Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
