A raw poetry collection with an unrelentingly bleak point of view.
A poetry collection about society’s underbelly.
Holstad explores themes of addiction, lust, and death in this unflinching look at life on the margins. In early poems, readers meet characters like “Carlos,” a “lifetime 18th Street / banger” with a “permanent / limp and a wicked grin.” “Horse” captures the detachment of a fatal overdose, while “The Creatives” recounts the suicide methods of various artists. “Morning Prayers” examines the fragmented nature of traumatic memories, while “invisible” is a desperate cry for help amid suicidal ideation. Multiple poems drop readers into psychiatric treatment facilities; “PAC” describes a Patient Acute Care Unit where the speaker is shackled and “shoved into solitary” while the facility in “Blount County Memorial Was Different” offers counseling, art classes, and smoke breaks. “Community Service” finds the speaker working in a thrift shop that “Nearly broke [them].” The delusional thinking involved in relapses is the focus of “no sweats – i’m in control.” Toxic relationships and longing for ex-lovers are recurring themes. “More Advice from the Heart” features a confrontation in which the speaker’s partner berates him for his promiscuity. In “Faith-Less,” the speaker receives an update from an ex and wonders, “Ever stop long enough to ponder / whether MY heart still belongs to you?” Wild dreams are another recurring theme, like one in which the speaker dreamt “I could cut people / in half with scissors, see into their / souls.” Holstad combines character studies with dark inner monologues in this blunt collection. The poet effectively blends brutality with compassion in poems like “Lamenting,” a piece about gun violence that acknowledges “How hearts are broken, / the many different ways.” Holstad excels at visceral descriptions, like that of Bianca, who had “so many track / marks, it looked like a / river of small lakes on / her torn body.” The scene-setting is equally vivid, like a mental health institution’s “walls crying / a terrible beige.” However, the constant objectification of women (who are relegated to “whores”) and the typecasting of people of color as miscreants may offend readers.
A raw poetry collection with an unrelentingly bleak point of view.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2025
ISBN: 9798265953896
Page Count: 132
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2025
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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