An engaging read that’s illuminated by skillful worldbuilding.
In Skilbeck’s haunting coming-of-age novel, a teenager comes to grips with the past of her new home in the Northern Irish countryside.
It’s 1972, and 12-year-old Australian Roxy and her family have just started a new life at the Old Manse, a “derelict” 19th-century structure packed with “indistinct memories of other people’s lives.” Before the family purchased it, the previous owners disclosed a frightening story about the property: The former inhabitants—a reverend, his wife, and their three children—had all died in the house in the 19th century. Strange occurrences begin to unsettle the new family, including odd sounds and a mysterious illness. Still, Roxy manages to find a sense of normalcy through her adventures with new teenage friend Margy, including underage drinking and seances with a Ouija board. In these early pages, Skilbeck conjures an atmosphere that’s gloomy and compelling; the tone becomes even darker after the family’s Easter-break trip to Sweden goes awry. After the family discovers the death of an extended family member, they get caught in a blizzard and their vehicle skids on black ice, causing an accident. Roxy must take daily tranquilizers afterward, which affect her studies and other aspects of her life, including a close relationship with an artistic 25-year-old named Elvis. At a few points, the narrative shifts to other time periods, including that of the previous residents—the Rev. Austin Stirlington, his wife Victoria, and their kids in 1860—while building toward a deeper understanding of Roxy’s family’s connection to the house. Skilbeck’s prose has an appealingly sharp tone throughout, especially in its rendering of the young protagonist’s breakthroughs: “Was it better to live in blissful ignorance, enjoying life as you lived it, or to prepare for your death, the inevitable end?” The novel’s historical grounding also stands out, addressing tensions in Northern Ireland, shaped by sectarian identity, as well as the Irish Potato Famine. The result is a multifaceted portrait of the setting with plenty of mystery, wonder, and alluring, gothic unease.
An engaging read that’s illuminated by skillful worldbuilding.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780645194135
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Borderstream Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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