This novel will bend and twist your notion of what love is, while leaving you utterly bewitched.
A woman marked by a family curse has a chance to rewrite her fate—but not without making a bargain with darkness.
Centuries ago, a being is born from the shadows, the product of a ritual, and roams in search of light from souls to feed its darkness. The being eats its first soul and takes the soul’s human form, becoming Miriam Richter. Fast forward to 1576 when Cybil Harding is born “under inauspicious stars,” the first daughter who, according to family lore, is cursed to be a witch and bring nothing but destruction. Cybil’s father, a man of magic himself, is heavily influenced by the Reformation and believes his magic to be the spreading of miracles. Cybil, then, is a dark spot in his vision. When witchcraft becomes a death sentence in England, her father takes matters into his own hands. Using the same ritual as his forefathers, he summons a spirit of the darkness to do his bidding—Miriam. Emboldened by the brightest soul she has ever seen—Cybil’s—Miriam wants her above all else. Cybil is less than willing to give up her soul to darkness when she has barely had a chance to live. Thus begins a unique game of cat and mouse: “We are light and darkness, you and I. There is no choice. Eventually, one of us must destroy the other.” Cybil’s realization of her supernatural potential is juxtaposed against the fury of men at her mere existence. Miriam sees her opportunity to offer Cybil a deal, a life free from the bonds of her curse. But wagering a deal with darkness comes with unimaginable consequences, and Cybil’s soul is destined for a journey of lifetimes. Siegel uses her skills as a writer of historical fiction to highlight the changing form of oppression against women across centuries, while infusing a compelling supernatural arc that makes this story one to remember. Cybil’s journey is one of oppression, self-discovery, violence, and love, these dichotomies most simply summed up by the struggle of light versus darkness. Cybil and Miriam’s deeply complicated bond shows the human side of evil and the dark side of love. Despite her story’s grand scope, Siegel has written something both ugly and beautiful in the most human of ways.
This novel will bend and twist your notion of what love is, while leaving you utterly bewitched.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063418028
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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