A slow but enthralling melodrama that deftly captures life in the south.
This debut historical novel follows two small-town American families’ lives throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
Young Elane Toogood hails from “the Annex” in her southern community of Lickskillet, where Black families and “poor white trash” live; nasty people call her the latter. She befriends Charlotte Frost sometime in the 1940s when the girls are teens. Charlotte’s daughter, Ali, and Elane’s daughter, Bee, born months apart, become best friends; it is they who will become the focus of the narrative as they grow up watching history take shape throughout the 1960s and 1970s, from President Nixon resigning on TV to the moon landing. But life passes by right there in their small town as well: Elane works as a maid in Ali’s household and is the accepted disciplinarian of both girls, and various family members endure the ramblings of Ali’s hateful, bigoted grandfather, Rayford Applewhite (Charlotte’s stepfather). White delivers the text using multiple voices as individual characters narrate the myriad chapters, with Ali headlining the bulk of them. There are fun nods to the era (“We dressed up as Sonny and Cher”), acknowledging the popularity of drive-in movies and (the original) Star Trek TV series, as well as entertaining anecdotes, like Ali’s transaction with a classmate, swapping a pair of binoculars for a parakeet that annoys both her mom and Elane. Some of the occurrences described, however, are drably routine; Ali teases an “adventure” with Bee, which is merely running errands with her grandmother. The author excels at nuanced details, noting the array of smells at a county fair and the colorful fruits inside canning jars on store shelves. The final act takes a surprising and convincing turn that brings this decades-long narrative to a satisfying close.
A slow but enthralling melodrama that deftly captures life in the south.Pub Date: April 14, 2023
ISBN: 9798886836318
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2023
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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