A slow-starting but often enjoyable supernatural tale of family.
A resident of a haunted house becomes a ghost herself in Banerjee’s sequel to her No. 7novel series.
Priya and Ravi Gupta died in a house fire. Now a spirit, Priya gets to the gates of Heaven but isn’t allowed to stay. She wanders freely on Earth and decides to go to London and watch over her adult children, Sonya and Sunny, who used to be close but can’t stand each other anymore. Priya stays mostly with Sonya, invisibly watching as she sets off on a short trip with her friends to Abingdon, England, to ponder her own future. There, Sonya meets the handsome, charming Randy, a cousin of her recent ex-boyfriend Paul. Paul tells her to stay away from him, but Sonya doesn’t listen; Randy seems sweet, and when Sonya gets tragic news, he flies to India with her to accompany her to a funeral. Meanwhile, Sonya’s determined to figure out how to break a terrible family curse, put there by her Uncle Dev after he performed black magic on a book given to Priya. The only way to put an end to the tragedies plaguing her family is to locate that tome. Meanwhile, the devil is hunting for souls like Priya’s, and the truth about Randy slowly starts to reveal itself. Banerjee’s use of a ghost narrator results in an effectively offbeat and sometimes otherworldly storytelling experience, as when Priya swims in the sea after being cast out of Heaven: “I swirled in eddies that spanned hundreds of miles, rode atop waves, rising, falling, rising, until at dawn, I rolled in off the coast with the roaring breakers….I clung to the weathered rocks, a wisp amidst a bounty of subtle hues.” However, because Priya’s mostly following her daughter’s journey, the narration tends to lack introspection. There are occasional moments of formality that come across awkwardly (“ ‘Oh, come on,’ I said a trifle irritably”), and it takes a while for narrative momentum to build. Once it gains traction, though, it’s an engaging adventure all the way to the cliffhanger ending.
A slow-starting but often enjoyable supernatural tale of family.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781734728279
Page Count: 316
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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