The minutia of daily life, transformed into affecting narratives.
Bennett’s collection of short stories centers flawed, vulnerable characters as they navigate loss, regret, and fleeting joys.
The author captures the quiet struggles of everyday life with warmth and occasional tension in this subtle exploration of aging, loneliness, and human connection. In the first story, “Daredevils,” a couple moves through a strained Sunday morning after the woman returns from an unexpected night away. As she gets dressed to head out for work, the narrator is reminded of the lack of excitement in his life as he watches a pilot pull off daring stunts in a nearby field. Dissatisfaction with the realities of adult life is a common theme, also cropping up in “Rain,” in which 46-year-old Carl wakes up after a drunken argument with his teenage son. After storming out of the house, Carl is clipped by a kid on a bicycle, whom he then spends the rest of the story trying to track down; his misguided pursuit escalates into an embarrassing standoff with a group of boys on the boardwalk, revealing Carl’s fear, anger, and difficulty with letting go. The vulnerability and helplessness that comes with aging are movingly depicted in “Dancing Guy,” in which an evening on the boardwalk finds a man named Eddie tap-dancing for Jack, his eccentric neighbor, and a woman named Roz. This is interrupted by a tense confrontation with two punks, highlighting the lack of dignity afforded to those on the margins of society. Bennett ends the collection with “Messes We Made,” the tragic tale of two lifelong friends who grow up drinking and lifeguarding along the Jersey Shore. The story deftly charts the slow unraveling of one of the friends, Phil, whose alcoholism leads to his divorce and the loss of his job. The narrator struggles to reconcile nights when Phil insisted they had plenty left in the tank and Phil’s lonely death. Throughout these stories, Bennett displays a gift for turning ordinary moments into rich, emotional landscapes, though the sheer number of the pieces gathered here can make this a slog at times.
The minutia of daily life, transformed into affecting narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781969421037
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Unsolicited Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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