An intriguing, polarizing tale about a man facing a new life after doing the unforgivable.
A sardonically zany debut novel focuses on a man who kills his girlfriend’s dog—and suffers the consequences.
As Stetz’s book opens, Brian and Amanda are living together in San Diego and seem perfectly happy, with only one little six-pound problem: Boo Boo, Amanda’s beloved dog. Amanda is devoted to Boo Boo, buys him noise-canceling headphones, and fixes him gourmet meals. Although this doesn’t stop her from having a healthy personal and sexual relationship with Brian, it takes up a large amount of her attention. Brian feels like an interloper in his own relationship, and, to make matters worse, he’s convinced that Boo Boo likes to torment him. So one day when Amanda is out shopping and Brian discovers that Boo Boo has pooped in one of his shoes, he impulsively grabs the dog and hurls him through the patio door to the backyard. The problem? The patio door is still closed (“Damn window washers; they’re good”). Boo Boo dies, and Brian is faced with the horrible prospect of telling Amanda. Almost immediately, he decides to begin “the lie parade” and cover up what he’s done, but it ends up being useless. Once Amanda begins telling her story to the world, explosions start going off in Brian’s life. He loses his job and seems permanently blacklisted from finding another; he becomes an infamous figure on social media and in the news; he’s attacked by former flings and accused of further monstrosities; and he’s eventually charged for the killing of Boo Boo and must find a lawyer and face a trial. Along the way, he’s got to deal with the fact that he is now a societal villain.
Stetz’s decision to refrain from making the philandering, callous, self-absorbed, dog-murdering Brian in any way a sympathetic character at first seems counterintuitive, particularly given the book’s slyly dark final twist. The decision takes the normal machinery of the redemption arc narrative and tilts it off-center in interesting ways. As his life slowly, systematically falls apart, Brian encounters strata of society he’d never experienced before, from prison (where a canine killer is scorned even by men who beat their wives) and the courtroom to the shadowy world of dogfighting in the American South (disgraced former NFL quarterback and convicted dogfight impresario Michael Vick comes up more than once in the book). Throughout all of this, Brian is never likable, and the narrative tone surrounding him—that in the final analysis, what he did to Boo Boo doesn’t really warrant all the subsequent fuss, and that the extent of that ruckus is the novel’s comic heart—will leave no readers doubting where they stand. Dog lovers who don’t find the subject at all funny, particularly when the work’s broader narrative never condemns the crime, might not stick around to follow Brian’s adventures. Other readers will doubtless appreciate the quippy dark humor Stetz deploys effectively alongside some more serious insights into human nature. “I was hurting,” Brian thinks at one point. “You do weird things when you hurt. You look to ease the pain.” None of these insights will bridge the divide for readers who consider Brian irredeemable, but for others, this dark farce will provide amusement.
An intriguing, polarizing tale about a man facing a new life after doing the unforgivable.Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9798218655815
Page Count: 393
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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