A compelling yarn with fresh characters and classic literary themes.
In Becker’s novel, a group of estranged friends uneasily reunites in their small Maine hometown.
In Augusta, Maine, high school students Billy and Dustin are the best of friends. Both standouts on the football team, they’re popular and are slated to earn university scholarships to Division 1 football programs. That is, until Billy sustains a freak injury—or what seems like a freak injury—at practice, fracturing his tibia and ending his football dreams. Tragically, the player who injured Billy is none other than Dustin. The boys’ friendship never recovers, and when they break up with their respective girlfriends—Billy with Jessica, whom he never gets over—the members of their friend group officially go their separate ways. Dustin leaves to play football at Baylor, and Jessica heads to New York to pursue her studies. While his friends flourish in their adult lives, Billy languishes in Augusta and earns a reputation as a nice guy with a bad drinking problem, someone the locals feel bad for but don’t want to meet outside the bar at the end of a long night. (“He would have taken a drink from any of the water bottles decorating the coffee table, something to sweep away the cotton in his mouth, but his stomach flipped at the thought. It didn’t sympathize with what had become an all-too-familiar condition. Hangovers are the sentences of trials lost the night before, his boss at the quarry liked to say”). When Billy discovers that Jessica has returned home to be with her terminally ill mother, he can’t help but pine for—and pester Jessica with—his hopes of reconciliation. But Jessica isn’t the only one back home, as Billy’s old pal Dustin has also reemerged. After Jessica finds a drunken Dustin passed out on the side of the road, it seems a romance may spark between her and Dustin instead. Billy doesn’t learn any of this until Andrea—another old friend who is now an intrepid investigative journalist—tells him. She happens to know that Dustin never finished college, and the reason why is disturbing (even if it’s not as shocking to Billy as one might hope). And Dustin isn’t the only one hiding something—a secret of Jessica’s has followed her to Maine, too.
Readers who enjoy small-town dramas will find no shortage of interpersonal intrigue here, as each of Becker’s characters is adept at keeping secrets from one another. The relationships feel real—the friendships are as authentic as the romances, and some of the novel’s best moments occur during the interplay between Billy and Andrea. Moments of larger social observation abound, as well: “When people were allowed to vote with their dollars, they inevitably voted for their own annihilation.” The elements readers expect from an idyllic, small-town setting are all at play, including the local diner, the struggling hometown paper, and the deep wounds from barely-forgotten high school legacies. These combine in a novel that feels both familiar and fresh, comforting and challenging. As Billy navigates his own disappointments and watches as his friends’ disappointments slowly float to the surface, readers will ponder the question of whether we can ever truly leave our origins behind. A compelling yarn with fresh characters and classic literary themes.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798988881643
Page Count: 345
Publisher: Copywrite, Ink
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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