An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.
A bilingual collaboration between several Mexican and Mexican American authors.
Ruiz describes this collection as a “poetry pulley” that “reel[s] in the poems made by rural poets with their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family,” including several Mexican immigrants and his own brother, who works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The poems are presented in both English and Spanish, with shared bylines between Ruiz and his collaborators and some of Ruiz’s solo work mixed in. Many of the 13 contributors—most of whom are identified by their first names only—work agricultural jobs; some lack documents, and a few survived human trafficking. The book’s various sections address the stress of migration, the anxiety of deportation, and the difficult reality of pursuing the American dream. One of the uses of poetry is to provide catharsis that journalism and even memoir can’t facilitate. Centavo, one poet, recounts selling cannabis as a child with a local gang to help his parents: “They would come and get me— / my backpack full and / it wasn’t just weed any more. I moved other shit: / Ten thousand pesos for one trip.” In another poem, David Ruiz (the author’s brother) grapples with his role as an ICE officer: “Imagine that you’re established here. You got / your kids to pick up from school. / You own two cars and / you got a job— / and I’m supposed to pick you up and send you back.” The starkness of the language makes the speakers’ surveys of past wounds feel even more acute. Some longer works braid several perspectives together, such as one that puts David Ruiz and multiple other contributors in conversation as two sides of an interaction at the Mexico–United States border. Ruiz’s solo works provide a sort of bridge, offering accounts of an experience between two worlds. The power in all these poems is not in their desire to convince, to cause guilt, or to inspire but in plainly laying out the many costs that one pays to live in America.
An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 9798985263220
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Pulley Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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