A leaden morality lesson thinly disguised as a novel.
A dissatisfied young woman impulsively marries a wealthy older man in Tate’s novel.
Doria Pritchit enjoys a comfortable existence and loving parents growing up on Long Island, but she evinces contempt for the middle-class lifestyle she considers a dreary mediocrity. Even as a young girl, she dreamed of the “lush, colorful life of a young, beautiful princess who possessed a treasure trove of diamonds and pearls,” a clichéd fantasy unfortunately typical of the author’s melodramatic narrative. Anxious for affluence, she hastily marries Lance Henderson, a wealthy and charming man who doggedly pursues her despite the fact that she’s only 19 years old and he’s more than twice her age. Her parents, John and Vernice, strenuously object to the marriage; the emotional strain of its possibility contributes to Vernice’s untimely death. Doria is immune to their protests, but she quickly realizes, once married to Lance, that their misgivings about him were justified. He subjects her to a reign of “domestic terror,” abuse that includes physical beatings and sexual assault, behavior that continues even after they have a son, Lance Junior. Tate’s tale is a kind of parable—“a human tragedy even the devil would mourn”—clearly meant to didactically communicate a lesson to the reader; it reads like a church sermon. The plot is heavy-handedly moralistic as well as formulaically predictable, and the characters, especially Doria and Lance, never rise above the level of superficial types. The prose is breathlessly overwrought: “Lance swore to himself he would destroy all of those tormenting ghosts of his past by extinguishing Doria Pritchit’s inner light with the negative power and force of his inner darkness.” Only Doria’s parents are sensitively developed—the reader can’t help but empathize with their palpable frustration. Overall, though, this is a lifeless, proselytizing tale.
A leaden morality lesson thinly disguised as a novel.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9798218115531
Page Count: 398
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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