An imaginative and entertaining novel about life, death, and mother-daughter relationships.
The Grim Reaper’s daughter must save her friend from eternal damnation in Paisley’s comic debut novel.
Trixie D’Vita’s mother is death—literally. As in, the Grim Reaper. “She was a red-headed, black-corseted, stiletto-wearing force of nature,” Trixie reports with a mix of awe and annoyance. “And she casually moved through time and space.” Trixie, who was raised primarily by her “uncle,” former drag queen Aunt Harry, isn’t interested in joining the family business. Instead, the 22-year-old works as a waitress at Aunt Harry’s popular Seattle bar, Quandors, where witches, zombies, vampires, and the tourists who want to mingle with monsters enjoy all manner of alcohol- and blood-based cocktails. When agents from the Angel Investigative Bureau show up asking for her mother’s whereabouts, Trixie finds herself caught up in a scandal involving a potentially rigged game show. To the Wheel features newly departed souls winning desirable next lives…or being cast into the pits of Hell. Trixie doesn’t want to get involved—her relationship with her mother is complex—until her best friend, Zuzi Gonzales, dies suddenly and ends up as a contestant on the show. Can Trixie save her friend from a horrible afterlife, even if it means descending into Hell itself…and, even worse, teaming up with her mother? Paisley brings a great deal of humor and invention to her premise. Here, a demon Trixie meets in Hell describes how torture has been revolutionized through Applied Health Sciences: “We’re all about creative, personalized Hellscapes. Our goal is producing well-rounded, rehabbed souls able to move on to their next lifetimes. By finding each soul’s unique triggers, we break them down and open them up so they can get back on the Wheel of Life.” Paisley takes her characters seriously, even when she places them in screwball situations, which makes for an unexpectedly moving reading experience. The mixture of surreal comedy, mythology, and memorable characters makes for a winning combination that will surely have fans eagerly awaiting a sequel.
An imaginative and entertaining novel about life, death, and mother-daughter relationships.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9798989277018
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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