A crowded but memorable account of a righteous quest.
An environmental thriller in which a California teacher travels to a parallel world.
It’s 1998 in Santa Cruz, California, where Aurora Bourne is a fourth grade teacher, an ardent surfer, and a lover of nature. The city faces many problems, ranging from poor conditions that farm workers must endure to financial cutbacks to the local school system. Aurora gets particularly fired up, however, by the fact that toxic methyl bromide is being used in the strawberry industry, as she sees that the dangerous chemical is adversely affecting the local population. Francis Hilman, like Aurora, is determined to fight for what’s right; the two meet on a group hike centered on exploring physics in nature. They have an instant, mutual attraction, which is complicated by the fact that Francis is a Catholic priest. After Aurora dives into a local swimming hole, she discovers an alternative version of Earth that exists alongside the one that she knows. Francis informs her that the other version of the world is experiencing its own problems, and although Aurora’s major battle may be with the strawberry industry, the story goes on to encompass the illegal removal of swallows’ nests; far more serious crimes involving sex trafficking and gang violence; and the ghost of a murdered boy. Despite the many different narrative elements, the sharp focus on Aurora herself allows the tale to progress steadily. At more than 600 pages in length, the book will prove to be a challenging ride for some, but it’s a consistently entertaining one. However, the dialogue sometimes sounds as if it were lifted from an informational brochure, as when Francis explains the importance of the Monterey Submarine Canyon by saying, “Seasonal currents bring cold water upwelling from down deep, loaded with rich nutrients.” Between such textbooklike moments, though, there’s plenty of action to keep things lively; in the wilds of California, even a well-intentioned beach cleanup can turn ugly, and terrors, both natural and human-made, can await in the woods.
A crowded but memorable account of a righteous quest.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949139-73-0
Page Count: 653
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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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