A razor-edged vision of society.
In Ford’s dystopian satire, moral certainty becomes a weapon and safety is enforced with the efficiency of a police state.
Professor Jim Hubbings, a weary pharmacologist, navigates a society in which institutions loudly proclaim “Zero tolerance for promotion of hate. No exceptions,” even as the definition of hate shifts constantly and oppressively. From the opening pages, Hubbings is confronted by mobs, defaced posters, and campus security reciting the mantra “You know perfectly well, there is ‘No Free Speech for Hate.’” His attempts to defend nuance are treated as suspicious: “It must be possible for someone to challenge the orthodox position,” he argues, only to be met with panic and accusations of complicity. University committees wield “academic accuracy” as a tool of suppression, with colleagues insisting, “We must hold the line. Zero tolerance for hate,” even when no actual hatred is present. At home, Hubbings’ daughter, Amelia, becomes a casualty of the ideological regime—her school penalizes her simply for reading a romance novel, with administrators warning that she must undergo “anti-hate training” before her online access can be restored. Amelia’s confusion highlights the book’s central tension: “It’s funny because it is supposed to be anti-hate, but they tell you people who are supposed to be terrible like you’re supposed to hate them.” The novel widens its scope as Hubbings becomes entangled with political extremists, underground enforcers, and government agencies that monitor even innocent walks past restricted zones. Headlines scream “Cesspit of Hate,” protest groups clash, and both sides increasingly mirror each other’s intolerance. Characters debate gender ideology, censorship, social contagion, and propaganda, often revealing how institutions exploit fear to justify expanding control. Ford’s worldbuilding is precise, bleakly humorous, and disturbingly plausible. Bureaucratic rituals, biased committees, and coded language create a suffocating sense of inevitability. A health care setting meant to help patients becomes another arena where dialogue is criminalized; Hubbings reflects that once someone is labelled as trans, “no adult is allowed to discuss this… lest they be accused of conversion therapy.”
A razor-edged vision of society.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781035877645
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 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 touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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