An effective fictional portrait of heinous acts and their consequences.
In MacBride’s novel, a man’s crimes during and after the Second World War cast a long, dark shadow over his family.
Vowing to shed the shame of one’s past is one thing; doing so is a very different matter, as Achiel Van Slyck’s family and siblings realize in this complex story of an unhinged man driven by a simple, horrifying motto: “Take all you want. Eat all you take.” It’s a lesson that Achiel learned in World War II–era Belgium, where he was born, and where his disturbing, violent nature found its darkest flowering—first, through various black-market schemes, and ultimately, through rounding up and murdering Jewish people as a German soldier.Given license to do as he pleased, Achiel was untroubled by his choice: “I spoke fluent German, so why not?” he notes at one point. He made an easy transition to life in the United States after the war, where he shed his Nazi past as easily as a rattlesnake loses its skin. However, his adult children—Sophie, Lucas, Ruby, and Ronnie—find it hard to shake off Achiel’s later murder of man named Clifford Ellis in 1975. It’s a crime that will leave them buckling under the weight of their own moral compromises, as one character plaintively admits: “I did what Dad told me. Am I going to get into trouble now?” Bit by bit, the story unfolds in a haunting, evocative style, zigzagging with jump-cut logic from their father’s imprisonment in the ’70s to the carefree American 1960s,’40s-era Belgium, and back again. Readers may find these narrative shifts endearing or irritating, but they’re a feature, not a bug, highlighting how people recall unspeakable crimes in disjointed fashion. The weight of the tragedy gradually becomes clear via court papers, letters, and even the prayers of Achiel’s wife, Lucia, who finally confesses: “Yes, I can forgive him, but I can’t love him.” Rewards are plentiful for readers who pay sharp attention.
An effective fictional portrait of heinous acts and their consequences.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781964354033
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Salty Books Publishing Company, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
SEEN & HEARD
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