A heady, intelligent, and heartfelt collection that rewards readers willing to venture off the beaten path.
Long offers a genre-blurring collection of short stories, poems, chants, and songs touching on myth, satire, elegy, and absurdity.
Drawing upon a well-traveled life and a deep well of literary knowledge, the author delivers a collection that veers wildly in tone—from poetic incantations to tragic tales to playful satire—yet manages to maintain a coherent philosophical throughline: the search for connection, meaning, and catharsis in a chaotic world. The collection opens with poems like “Live Where There’s Water,” a cryptic and wry meditation on artistic purpose and poetic lineage. The standout story “Death Mask” revives the spirit of 19th-century opera with gothic grandeur and heartfelt melodrama. Told through the voice of fictional tenor Otto de Carr, the story explores grief, guilt, and memory in lavish, impassioned prose: “If I fail in this attempt, if you, dear audience, will not accept me after hearing this tale, then I shall be forced to obey the outraged cry of my own vengeful heart.” Long’s recreation of an overwrought yet sincere operatic voice is both impressive and emotionally resonant. “Strange Fox Hunts” offers comic relief, taking a turn toward the absurd as it recounts an over-the-top family legend involving a foxhunt that barrels through a church during Sunday service (the farcical ending is rendered with gleeful exaggeration and satirical bite). In “Getting to Know the Neighbors,” the author turns his gaze to modern suburbia and small-town paranoia as the protagonist observes his eclectic and increasingly bizarre community. His tongue-in-cheek inventory includes “Manic, dangerous book editors,” “Religious fanatics,” and “Nitwits in gigantic pickup trucks jacked up gigantically off the ground.” Throughout, the poems act as thematic anchors or meditative interludes. Some, like “Invocation,” channel ritualistic lyricism (“Invisible spirits, / We fly through the trees”), while others, like “The Poetry War,” lean into autobiographical tenderness. The book’s eclecticism is both its strength and its risk; some readers may find the tonal shifts jarring or uneven. But Long’s prose is consistently well crafted, and his command of voice, particularly in stories with distinct narrators, is remarkable.
A heady, intelligent, and heartfelt collection that rewards readers willing to venture off the beaten path.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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