An absorbing, unsparing critique of American politics with humor and a likable protagonist.
A campaign staffer finds himself wrongfully accused of a crime during the 2020 Donald Trump–Joe Biden presidential race in this alternative-history satire.
As Election Day in America nears, rumors float that the Chinese are bankrolling Biden’s presidential bid. The head of a Washington, D.C., strategic intelligence firm hires former MI5 operative Danny Copper to see if there’s validity to this scuttlebutt. Copper turns to someone working on Biden’s campaign—Hong Kong–born Gary Wang. The pair’s drunken conversation sparks the mere suggestion that the candidate is aware the Chinese are bankrolling his presidential run. Copper adds fuel to the fire by digging up “plausible evidence” against Biden, though it’s little more than further rumors. Meanwhile, someone throws Wang’s life into a tailspin by leaking his name in the press as a reputed “back channel” to the Chinese. The feds scour his New York City apartment, and reporters hound him and his girlfriend, Manny Carleton, a Fox News assistant guest coordinator. Wang may run before he’s arrested for supposedly accepting money from China for Biden’s election campaign. But the only place Wang has to go is an estranged relative’s place, which will likely stir up a past he’s kept hidden. Goodwin’s novel lampoons both political sides, as Republicans and Democrats scramble to either debunk the accusations or substantiate them. Though this narrative leans toward conservative views, nearly every character is shady, including a cutthroat CNN reporter with a right-wing agenda. An extensive cast and comedic moments help propel the story, from President Trump’s repeated descriptions of certain people as good guys to a surprisingly funny interrogation scene. But the author takes some subjects seriously, as when protests spiral into violence. The latter half takes a welcome turn by concentrating on sympathetic Wang, who, in trying to prove his innocence, gets caught up with criminals. The final act suitably wraps up his personal story as well as the impending election.
An absorbing, unsparing critique of American politics with humor and a likable protagonist.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63363-565-4
Page Count: 292
Publisher: White Bird Publications
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Harrison has earned a place among a vanguard of women reinventing horror that includes Mona Awad and Julia Armfield.
Harrison turns her attention from vampires and werewolves to the ghosts of childhood trauma.
Stylist and fashion influencer Clio Barnes has been estranged from her mother for years, as have her sisters. When their mother dies, she leaves her house to Leda, Daphne, and Clio. The elder two want nothing to do with the house, but Clio has visions of renovating the place, turning her DIY into content, and flipping it for a profit. One more detail: The house is possessed by a demon. In So Thirsty (2024), Harrison wrote a book about vampires that was also a novel about best friends trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Here, Harrison mines the potential of the haunted house to excavate the abuse that Clio and her sisters suffered as children. Clio is a terrific protagonist. She’s sharp and funny and a little less self-aware than she thinks she is. As she tries to reconcile her own memories with those of her family—including her mother, who left behind an annotated copy of the book she wrote about living in a demon-plagued split-level in the suburbs—and questions her own sense of reality, Clio unravels. But it’s a necessary unraveling, the kind of annihilation that makes real change possible. This novel delivers truly chilly scenes while also exploring the emotional depths that make horror meaningful. There’s a climactic scene at a family barbecue where Clio sees echoes of her mother in herself, Leda, and Daphne and thinks, “Her ghost is us.” There are many emotionally devastating moments in this novel, but this one captures the essence of them all. Harrison knows that we are, all of us, haunted.
Harrison has earned a place among a vanguard of women reinventing horror that includes Mona Awad and Julia Armfield.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780593642580
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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