A moving story that celebrates the authentic identities of LGBTQ+ people into their golden years.
In Karl’s novel, a group of LGBTQ+ friends reunite for their 50th high school reunion.
Frankie organizes a 50-year high school reunion and reaches out to LGBTQ+ classmates. Trick and Rick, a married couple, reminisce about the difficulties they faced growing up gay. The narrative then shifts focus to Marcus, who reflects on the challenges he faced as one of the few Black students; he has since become a financially struggling social worker, and his high school experiences still affect him. Johnny D. struggles with the decision to attend the reunion due to traumatic memories of being bullied. A chapter about Andy describes his adventures hitchhiking across the country and his carefree attitude toward sex and relationships. Marcus and Frankie begin to gather information about their former classmates for the reunion. Frankie organizes the group to create a performance for the reunion to celebrate their authentic selves; conflict arises when the group receives a threatening anonymous message warning against their planned show. Despite this, the group is undeterred. Overall, Karl excels in creating characters with emotional complexity and deep backstories. However, the primary source of drama seems limited to an outburst by a homophobic straight couple, Jesús and Clarita. This sets the stakes low for the climactic moment of the novel, as the trouble is quickly and unsatisfyingly resolved. (Jesús strikes his wife, who then leaves, and he immediately apologizes: “I want to apologize for this...I want to assure you that my wife will be fine. I never wanted anyone to see us acting like this. I’ll deal with all that later.”) Still, the tale is heartwarming, though readers should be aware that, while the story is wholesome, there are plentiful sexually explicit passages, particularly in the first chapter.
A moving story that celebrates the authentic identities of LGBTQ+ people into their golden years.Pub Date: June 28, 2024
ISBN: 9798987912683
Page Count: 210
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2024
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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