Family life is the grounding for a compelling story of strange powers and old secrets.
A young woman discovers that her inheritance from her estranged mother includes an island—and a supernatural power.
Like many of the scariest horror stories, this one is set amid family drama. A young Black woman named Layla Hurley struggles with how to mourn her mother, Elinor, a cold and exacting woman from whom Layla was long estranged. Then Layla’s aunts, Jayne and Therese, whom she hasn’t seen for years, appear at her mother’s funeral, enveloping her with the love and warmth their sister Elinor withheld. Condolence and affection aren’t all they have to offer—they want Layla to know that she has inherited Scotia Island, one of the Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast, near where the aunts live in Port Royal. One problem is that ownership is disputed by their cousin Charlotte Fortenberry, who is, to put it mildly, a difficult person. The other problem is that the island isn’t the only thing Layla inherited. It turns out that the strange, inexplicable dreams she has had off and on over the years are the manifestation of a gift—or curse—handed down through the female members of her family, the third daughters of third daughters. They are Dreamwalkers, able to enter into and experience the dreams of other people—and, if their skill is carefully developed, to manipulate those dreams. Chapters of the book jump back to the last days of the Civil War, when an enslaved woman named Gemma, Layla's ancestor, was living on Scotia Island and using that power, escalating it to frightening levels. As Layla tries to understand the nature of her own power, she also must decide whether to deploy it—and whether the outcome would be worth the cost. Woods develops complex and mostly appealing characters, and she keeps the plot moving at a swift pace.
Family life is the grounding for a compelling story of strange powers and old secrets.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-25-080561-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters.
A phone call from her past disrupts the tenuously reconstructed life of a concert pianist turned farmer’s wife.
We know from the beginning that Livia Cable is the battered survivor of her brother Cyrus’ death by suicide, a devastating romance, and a career-ending injury. Only 11 when Cyrus stepped in front of a train, she was already marked out as different in her rural Tennessee hometown by her extraordinary musical ability. The siblings had huddled together against their angry mother’s frequent beatings, and Livia still feels abandoned by Cyrus years later, when she picks up the phone to hear the voice of Sigurd, the fiery labor organizer she loved and lost to “the revolution” while on scholarship at the Indiana University School of Music. Now married to kind, steady childhood friend Charlie, Livia looks back on her affair with Sigurd as she struggles to deal with the recent death of her mother, a compulsive hoarder who left a house stuffed with junk to be disposed of and bitter memories that haven’t faded over time. Kingsolver skillfully juggles the two time frames to unravel Livia’s complicated feelings about the life she lost when her right hand was crushed and the life she has now as a country piano teacher. A partita, she explains to Sigurd early on, “is a composition made of a lot of parts with a lot of different moods…the artist’s work is to make them all add up to something that feels whole.” That’s precisely what Kingsolver does in this beautifully paced and judged narrative, which builds to revelations uncovered amid the piles of trash in Livia’s childhood home about the reasons for Cyrus’ suicide (clearly foreshadowed) and their mother’s rage (startling and heartbreaking). A fierce belief that great art is for everyone joins Kingsolver’s familiar preoccupations with class distinctions, social injustice, and the complex bonds of family and community in a tender denouement.
Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780063577541
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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