Several intriguing characters and insightful story lines struggle to emerge from this overstuffed novel.
Family stories echo each other, for good and ill, from one woman all the way down to her great-great-granddaughter.
The stories of five generations of Indigenous women weave through this novel, set in western Canada. Mamé has already died but is struggling to negotiate the new norms on the other side. Her daughter Geneviève has checked herself into a rehab center at age 81 after decades of alcoholism. Gen’s daughter, Lucie, is dying of cancer and has long been estranged from her own daughter, Allie. But Lucie has asked Allie’s daughter, Carter, to help her die by suicide even though Carter and Lucie have never met. All of their stories, past and present, overlap in an intergenerational sweep of families fractured by racism, poverty, misogyny, and substance abuse. But family bonds persist, and for this family the strongest bond is music. The book’s structure moves from one character to another, one time period to another, so often that some shifts are confusing. The most interesting stories, and those that get the most space, are Gen’s and Carter’s. Gen used to play piano at dance halls while her charismatic sister, Velma, played the fiddle, but Velma died years ago. As Gen detoxes, she has visions of Velma visiting so they can play together again. Carter is in the midst of divorcing her husband, a Croatian immigrant, and deciding what to do about her 3-year-old son as she battles addictions of her own—and whether to grant Lucie’s request. Some of the book’s elements of magical realism work, like Mamé’s version of the next life and Gen’s visits with Velma. Others, like chapters from the points of view of Gen’s dogs and car, seem extraneous. But the book really bogs down in a long, repetitive, intermittent narrative about a lovelorn bison that never clicks with the rest of the story.
Several intriguing characters and insightful story lines struggle to emerge from this overstuffed novel.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781643755182
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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