Subdued yet alluring; a pensive reflection on the male psyche.
This debut short-story collection paints the wistful life of a newspaper journalist as seen through his sexual and romantic encounters.
Though nominally a volume of tales (and a poem), Hickok’s collection is told in sequence almost exclusively from the perspective of one character—Art Stafford. The prologue sees Art as a jaded adult looking to start his life afresh. It is dreamlike yet sexually explicit, heavy with regret (“He glared at the sullen unshaven face in the mirror. ‘You’ve got to stop living in the past’”). From here, readers are taken on a chronological journey through Art’s early experiences, failed relationships, and middle-aged sexual renewal. The first story, “The Beating Heart,” tells of a seaside vacation where 11-year-old Monnie shows 12-year-old Art her breasts. It concludes not only with a prescient awareness of how sex will shape Art’s life, but also with an allegorical inkling that he will be forever the fish, not the fisherman. Subsequent tales detail Art’s relationships in high school and college. Some of these stories contain dialogue sections that verge on the inane, such as “Chosen by Sharon” (young teens speculating about vaginas). Others, such as “Loving Fiona,” hint at more profound insights into death, philosophy, and intellectual attraction. Throughout, Art grows in sexual experience. The closest he comes to happiness is in “Life Is the Dream, Love Is Reality,” where his first truly defining relationship ends in his girlfriend’s pregnancy and death. Subsequent tales, such as “The Singer, Not the Song,” afford more chronological scope, examining Art’s adult relationships across a span of years. By the time readers reach “Life Is a Short Story,” 50-year-old Art has come to terms with his predilection for doomed affairs. Throughout, Hickok writes in an assured style, pulling readers along. The narrow sexual focus results in a distorted picture, yet other aspects of Art’s life emerge at the edges—his intelligence, his career as a journalist, even the sincerity with which he gives in to his male urges and construes sex as love. The collection ends with an epilogue in which Art, now an older man, reflects on the women he has known, most of whom are dead. It is a somber, quite powerful conclusion, rather greater than the sum of the preceding parts.
Subdued yet alluring; a pensive reflection on the male psyche.Pub Date: July 3, 2023
ISBN: 9798359159548
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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