A decadently bizarre novel for fans of queer survival stories.
A woman stumbles on a body in the woods and treats it as an unusual—and unsettling—companion.
Twenty-one-year-old Savannah, on a “mental health vacation” from her last semester of college, is hiding at her divorcing parents’ lake house. Lonely, struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and unsure of her sexuality, she recently lost all her friends after an incident with a manipulative ex-best friend (who now lingers as a hallucination) and self-medicates with alcohol and Ambien. One night in March, after mixing the two, she sleepwalks into the woods behind the house and jolts awake next to a corpse. The body, freshly deceased, belongs to Ava Brown, a gay opera singer stuck in an office job. Nearby is Ava’s backpack, containing a composition book aptly labeled the “DEComposition Book” and filled with a record of Ava’s last days. Rather than call the police, Savannah decides to wait—until she’s read the journal, and until the body is nothing but bones, until she’s said everything she needs to say. The novel alternates between Savannah’s present-day isolation and Ava’s journal entries, which recount how a Labor Day weekend hiking trip with her co-workers Megan and Chad went terribly awry. The narrative allows for vivid, unsettling descriptions of decay (“green and purple splotches on her skin are a cursed moldy pizza dough”). Savannah is an imperfect, often frustrating protagonist, but her poor decisions make her compulsively absorbing—readers will keep turning the pages to see what she does next. The book targets a Gen Z audience; slang like “sus” and “slaps” can be jarring, though some pop-culture moments (“Bobby Flay pulls out crispy rice again. The judges eat it up, literally. He wins, again. The crowd boos”) land well. Fans of Yellowjackets will eat up this queer, psychologically chaotic tale.
A decadently bizarre novel for fans of queer survival stories.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781335001894
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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