A difficult suburban story with well-developed characters.
A small-town gossip riles up her neighbors in MacBride’s novel.
In the late 1980s, Esther Fuhrman is the chief tattler of tiny Opole, Michigan. To her, gossip is “currency that she peddled around town to anyone who would listen (and some who wouldn’t)”; for instance, she tells many townspeople that a local boy has leukemia, but in fact he was simply out of town with his family on vacation. Then Esther finds a cryptic note that reads “Mock Raid” and features a map of the school where she volunteers; before long, the false rumor around town is that Esther foiled an attack on school kids. She also becomes convinced, wrongly, that a local cheese shop is a front for the Mafia, but she also reports a new man in town, correctly, for possessing child pornography. This increases her influence in Opole, and later, Esther finds some documents on a school computer and gets parents in the community riled up about independent-study policies that haven’t been implemented yet, causing unnecessary chaos. Later, when White boys in town play an April Fool’s Day prank, Esther, who’s also White, quickly suggests that the new Black family in town might be at fault. Later, the book shifts forward to 2015, as Esther is up to her old tricks, but on social media instead of in person. MacBride presents a well-sketched portrait of the town of Opole and its residents, who all feel authentic, including Esther, who’s clearly depicted as having an inability to comprehend social cues. However, many readers may find it hard to get through the portions of the story seen through Esther’s eyes, as she does some unforgivably cruel things. Indeed, she’s revealed to be such a destructive force in her community that many readers will likely expect her to get a comeuppance, but although she does get some punishment in the end, it’s unsatisfyingly mild in proportion to her offenses. Readers should also be aware of a disturbing scene in which Esther’s 10-year-old son tries to buy a gun, although this plan is eventually thwarted.
A difficult suburban story with well-developed characters.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 979-8454144715
Page Count: 285
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hokey plot, good fun.
A business executive becomes an unjustly wanted man.
Walter Nash attends his estranged father Tiberius’ funeral, where Ty’s Army buddy, Shock, rips into him for not being the kind of man the Vietnam vet Ty was. Instead, Nash is the successful head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, where he earns a handsome paycheck that supports his wife, Judith, and his teenage daughter, Maggie. An FBI agent approaches Nash after the funeral and asks him to be a mole in his company, because the feds consider chief executive Rhett Temple “a criminal consorting with some very dangerous people.” It’s “a chance to be a hero,” the agent says, while admitting that Nash’s personal and financial risks are immense. Indeed, readers soon find Temple and a cohort standing over a fresh corpse and wondering what to do with it. Temple is not an especially talented executive, and he frets that his hated father, the chairman of the board, will eventually replace him with Nash. (Father-son relationships are not glorified in this tale.) Temple is cartoonishly rotten. He answers to a mysterious woman in Asia, whom he rightly fears. He kills. He beds various women including Judith, whom he tries to turn against Nash. The story’s dramatic turn follows Maggie’s kidnapping, where Nash is wrongly accused. Believing Nash’s innocence, Shock helps him change completely with intense exercise, bulking up and tattooing his body, and learning how to fight and kill. Eventually he looks nothing like the dweeb who’d once taken up tennis instead of football, much to Ty’s undying disgust. Finding the victim and the kidnappers becomes his sole mission. As a child watching his father hunt, Nash could never have killed a living thing. But with his old life over—now he will kill, and he will take any risks necessary. His transformation is implausible, though at least he’s not green like the Incredible Hulk. Loose ends abound by the end as he ignores a plea to “not get on that damn plane,” so a sequel is a necessity.
Hokey plot, good fun.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781538757987
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 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
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