Unabashedly polemical, angry, and heartbreaking.
The aftermath of a fictional school shooting that closely resembles the Sandy Hook tragedy makes for a very dark read.
While Griner includes background on the teenage gunman and devotes quite a bit of space to Otto’s memories of life with his son, Liam, and wife, May, before the shooting, the novel focuses mainly on the consequences for the survivors and society at large. Beginning in 2018, on the third anniversary, Otto tells his story in nonlinear narrative segments, moving backward to the 2015 shooting and even earlier to a time when his happiness as a father and husband seemed perfect, as well as forward to 2019 as he's going off the rails, drinking and obsessing. Sprinkled between these sections are drawings by Otto, ever higher statistics about school shootings, and a selection of the emails and letters Otto has received, mostly vile accusations and threats from people who believe the shooting never happened. But it obviously did. Eight-year-old Liam was shot but survived the 11 minutes of gunfire. As he languished in the hospital for months, hoaxers zeroed in on him and his parents with particular fury. Otto and May blame themselves if not each other, and their marriage, which seemed so strong, collapses. Liam’s best friend, Latrell, did not survive, and Otto falls into an increasingly unhealthy friendship with the boy's father, Lamont, a former football player, based on their mutual vengeful grief. Lamont becomes increasingly, dangerously violent toward anyone who crosses him. Otto flirts briefly with violence, but his obsession narrows on finding and confronting the woman he thinks controls the hoaxers, who continue to stalk him and May for years. Until an unfortunately rushed ending, Griner’s novel is a powerful excavation into the darkest recesses of grief. Parents of young children, beware: Liam is such a believable child that identifying with his parents’ stark anguish becomes unavoidable—and so unbearable that it’s hard to imagine how the author could bring himself to keep writing.
Unabashedly polemical, angry, and heartbreaking.Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-946448-76-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sarabande
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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 delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.
A boy band cruise is the site of one woman’s post-divorce healing.
Annie never meant to end up alone on a Boy Talk cruise, but that’s exactly what happens when her sister breaks a leg and has to bow out of their vacation. Now Annie is sharing a cabin with a stranger, stuck on the cruise ship American Fantasy with the 1990s band—and thousands of their biggest fans, known as Talkers. Annie doesn’t consider herself a Talker, even if she was a fan back in the day. But reeling from a recent divorce and dealing with complex feelings about turning 50, Annie throws herself into the distraction of the trip. What she doesn’t expect is to truly connect with the music, the band, the other fans, and herself. As Annie observes, “This was why people turned to religion or watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar instead of alone in their living room. It felt good to be a part of something where your passion was celebrated instead of mocked.” All the Talkers dream of having a special bond with “the guys,” but when Annie actually does meet Keith, a Boy Talk member who’s clearly going through a hard time, she wonders if their connection is real or if she’s just as delusional as the other (mostly) women on the ship. Straub depicts a wonderfully immersive world aboard the American Fantasy, one where each woman assigns herself a favorite guy and everyone is bedecked in Boy Talk merch. For five days, the Talkers live in a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is their connection with a band that meant everything to them so many years ago. As Annie puts it, “Inside her head, which is where she heard the music, it had touched some lever so deep that it couldn’t be reversed…the music was a direct vein to her own childhood, the least complicated part of her life.”
A delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217046850
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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