An ambitious, if sometimes hazy, ecological/urban tale that comes straight out of left field.
A surreal comedic novel about a baseball fan’s bizarre adventure, set in modern-day Los Angeles.
Laemmle presents Icarus J. Spinoza: a left-handed aficionado of America’s pastime who has a penchant for marijuana and tacos. He lives with his girlfriend, Fiona Dam, in the Frogtown neighborhood of central LA. One evening, Icarus fails to return from walking the couple’s dog, MacGuffin, and Fiona is understandably concerned; Frogtown is near the Los Angeles River, a body of water “generally derided as a real dud, little better than an open-air sewage system,”and Schlitz-guzzling ruffians and other unsavory types commonly hang out on its shores. As Fiona begins her search for her boyfriend and her dog, readers learn that Icarus is, in fact, on a strange journey of his own. Icarus wakes up by the river, sans MacGuffin, where he’s met by a talking goldendoodle named Charon. It turns out that the canine is the Charon—the mythological figure responsible for ferrying the dead to the afterlife. Icarus isn’t dead, but he would like to find his own dog, so he and Charon venture further into the seedy locales surrounding the river. It’s eventually revealed that a particularly sinister coyote, who’s been “radicalizing some of the local canines,” according to Charon, wants to flood the city. This rambunctious tale manages to include bits of real-life history, philosophical discussion, humorous illustrations by Keynan (often featuring dogs), and, for better or worse, plenty of instances of defecation. The combination makes for a tale that offers readers an uncommonly irreverent look at the City of Angels. Its weirdness can result in a tangled narrative, at times; for instance, the portions that lean heavily on Greek mythology are often humorous, but they aren’t always clear in their intent, as when the mighty Poseidon takes the form of a beaver who, for some reason, has a keen interest in seeing human breasts. There are also more obscure entities, such as Menoetius and Polyphemus, which may not be familiar to those uninitiated in the classics. In the end, though, readers will come away with a new appreciation for a place as strange as the creatures—real and imaginary—that call it home.
An ambitious, if sometimes hazy, ecological/urban tale that comes straight out of left field.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2021
ISBN: 979-8468929452
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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