When it comes to facing tragedy and trauma, Quick's novel shows us that it definitely takes a village to heal and move on.
The author of The Silver Linings Playbook (2008) tells a story of unexpected twists and turns on the road to recovery after a shattering tragedy.
Lucas Goodgame is dealing with a lot. He's a high school counselor in Majestic, Pennsylvania, who survived a mass shooting in the town’s historic theater. His wife, Darcy, was killed and has been transformed into an angel; his analyst, whose own wife was killed in the shooting, won’t answer his desperate letters; and there’s a kid camped in his yard who might hold the key to helping the town heal. Quick became a household name thanks to his debut novel and the 2012 Oscar-winning movie adaptation, and he's conjured a similar feeling of community and tender family affection here, with plenty of people helping Lucas cope with the unimaginable. That includes Jill, owner of the local coffee shop and his late wife’s best friend. Jill feeds and cares for Lucas, and it’s clear she wants more from him, but he’s not ready—not when the angelic Darcy is visiting him at night, wrapping her wings around him and leaving feathers on his bed in the morning. But it’s Eli, the shooter's younger brother, who has the greatest impact on Lucas' recovery. Eli is struggling with guilt—he saw his brother's behavior take a sinister turn and didn’t warn anyone—and he pitches a tent behind his former counselor’s house. Soon, inspired by Darcy’s enigmatic words—"the boy is the way forward”—Lucas realizes that helping Eli make a monster movie for his senior class project just might help the teen, the traumatized survivors, and the town find meaning in the senseless deaths of 17 of its citizens. The novel is timely in light of what’s taking place in the U.S. now, and some characters turn their grief into political activism, but that’s not Quick’s focus. He doesn't delve into issues like gun control or the shooter’s motivations, which makes the story feel superficial at times. Instead, his focus is on Lucas' healing journey, the people who love him (we should all be so lucky), and how the mind makes “valiant attempts to protect us” until we’re ready to deal with our losses.
When it comes to facing tragedy and trauma, Quick's novel shows us that it definitely takes a village to heal and move on.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668005-42-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.
A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch.
“Monsters are a boon for gods. Imagine all the prayers.” So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller’s dazzling second novel. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. It takes banishment to the island Aeaea for Circe to sense her calling as a sorceress: “I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began.” This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety. She makes lovers of Hermes and then two mortal men. She midwifes the birth of the Minotaur on Crete and performs her own C-section. And as she grows in power, she muses that “not even Odysseus could talk his way past [her] witchcraft. He had talked his way past the witch instead.” Circe’s fascination with mortals becomes the book’s marrow and delivers its thrilling ending. All the while, the supernatural sits intriguingly alongside “the tonic of ordinary things.” A few passages coil toward melodrama, and one inelegant line after a rape seems jarringly modern, but the spell holds fast. Expect Miller’s readership to mushroom like one of Circe’s spells.
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-55634-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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