A haunting tale that is both despairing and inspiriting.
A medical student is assigned to a life-altering clerkship in pediatric oncology in Del Toro’s novel.
In 1995, Rudy Dell, a fourth-year medical student at the top of his class, is looking forward to a cushy clerkship at an outpatient dermatology clinic. He’s suddenly reassigned to a pediatric oncology department, however, likely because he’s paired with his best friend, Mike Davenport, the son of a billionaire in the medical insurance business roundly hated by doctors everywhere. Rudy is quickly thrust into an emotionally charged environment—all about him are children struggling to survive, flanked by their agonized parents. He befriends Maria, a 9-year-old girl in the final throes of leukemia who has no family and is a ward of the state; sadly, she seems destined to die alone. Rudy has always been a competitive student, one who routinely sees his professional commitments in careerist terms, but now he’s profoundly confronted by the obligations of his chosen vocation. “Up to this moment, everything had been a challenge. He had learned to see patients as tests of his abilities. Rudy saw them not as people, but as problems to be solved, unconsciously rationalizing away the human factor, the empathy.” The author sensitively depicts Rudy’s gathering misgivings about his choice to become a doctor and his first confrontation with genuine self-doubt. The most memorable aspect of this poignant novel, though, is the characterization of children like Maria, facing death with almost preternatural courage, often more worried about their parents than their own fate. This presentation of childhood—“innocent to the world and in the presence of magic”—is as insightful as it is heartbreaking. Occasionally, Del Toro’s writing approaches sentimental clumsiness, but he always pulls back with an admirable authorial restraint. This is a sad but hopeful book, one that impressively captures the complexity of children’s lives.
A haunting tale that is both despairing and inspiriting.Pub Date: March 20, 2020
ISBN: 9781733781930
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Del Toro Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 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
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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