A powerful cautionary tale about the destructive effects of restrictive religious rule.
In this dystopian novel, patriarchal fundamentalists control Kansas, and a pregnant law student sees her plans unraveling in the face of an increasingly harsh religious regime.
In 2024, Stacey Davenport is in her third year at Kansas University Law School when she finds herself accidentally pregnant by her long-term, long-distance boyfriend, Grant. This already fraught situation is made more complex by the fact that Grant lives in the progressive blue state of Massachusetts while Stacey’s Kansas is becoming increasingly repressive, especially concerning the rights of women. Wounded by Grant’s withdrawal after she reveals her pregnancy, Stacey heads home to complete her law degree only to find that fundamentalist Christian control of her red state is rapidly increasing, and a new law forbidding pregnant women from obtaining graduate degrees may derail her career before it has even started. In addition, she discovers that her brother has been arrested for “Feto-Terrorism,” searching the internet for reproductive information, and proposed legislation will limit the options of unmarried pregnant women even further. Determined to salvage her dream of becoming an attorney, save her brother, and protect her unborn daughter, Stacey uncovers a hidden underground of resistance that includes her father, long assumed to have succumbed to his addiction to opioid drugs. As she launches her own battle against the powerful Rev. James Ezekial by attempting to gain a foothold in state politics, Stacey must learn painful truths about whom she can trust. Keech’s imagined dystopia is based in enough reality to be chillingly claustrophobic, as both women and men find their humanity and choices increasingly diminished. The subjugation of women is deftly tied to economic oppression (Ezekial is allied with a Koch brothers–like faction working to eliminate the minimum wage). And the social and religious elements that cause the women to be complicit in their own plight are disturbingly familiar. The story is absorbing, fast-moving, and unsettling without descending into hopelessness. References to blue state political correctness are tantalizingly underdeveloped, but as this book is the first installment of a series, perhaps this omission will be corrected in future volumes.
A powerful cautionary tale about the destructive effects of restrictive religious rule.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9983805-3-7
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Real Nice Books
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2020
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
