Iranian and American cultures collide in a shower of glitter and tears in this sendup of the SoCal elite.
A wealthy Iranian family in Los Angeles has a reality TV deal—and their inner lives—turned upside down by Covid-19.
The four Milani sisters are ready for their moment in the spotlight. They’ve grown up rich, thanks to their dad’s booming snack empire—he’s the inventor of the “Pizzabomme”—but now they have a chance for stratospheric fame in the form of a reality show. Two of the sisters already know they have “Main Character” energy: Roxana, the daddy’s girl and ambitious influencer, and the youngest sister, Haylee, who’s obsessed with wellness culture and clean eating. On the other side of the family spectrum is Violet, the sensitive eldest, who has built a career as a model, and the chronically ill and “practical” Mina, who is more interested in anonymous online stan culture than her own face on TV. The four young women live in a sprawling estate with their mismatched parents—their slick snack-baron dad and gloomy mother—and (obvs) the household help. But as the six members of the Milani family are about to begin filming a Kardashian-style TV show, the pandemic forces them to confront the variety of secrets and hidden longings they’ve all been harboring for too long. Khakpour, who was born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles, has written a kind of hyperreal neon inversion of Little Women, if the March girls had to deal with hashtags, eating disorders, microaggressions, and group chats. Khakpour aims for, and mostly hits, the sweet spot of satire, where critique blurs at the edges with sympathy for the hot messes that are the Milanis. It’s not easy, after all, to figure out your identity, especially when the world is watching.
Iranian and American cultures collide in a shower of glitter and tears in this sendup of the SoCal elite.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781524747909
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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 debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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