An inventive and shameless story collection for the chronically online.
Rejection alters the course of reality for the characters in this memorable novel-in-stories.
Tulathimutte’s innovative collection features seven interconnected stories all dealing with rejection in one way or another. Contextualizing the whole collection, the opening story, “The Feminist,” follows a self-proclaimed feminist man over decades as he gathers his “thickening dossier of unfairness.” In “Pics,” Alison, a woman in her late 20s, becomes unintentionally obsessed with a longtime friend with whom she’s had a one-time fling. In between stalking him on social media, crafting apology emails, adopting a unique and questionable pet, and considering starting a podcast, she texts her friends from a former internship; the group chat—full of sexual puns, therapy-speak, comedic bits, and emojis—shows the full extent of Alison’s spiral. In “Our Dope Future,” a home-schooled “serial entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist” writes a Reddit post from hell; using co-opted slang, the narrator slowly reveals the lengths he’s willing to go to firm up his romantic and domestic future. Tulathimutte is unafraid to write the most disturbing, disgusting, and delightfully deranged things. Each time you think the characters have hit rock bottom, they pull out a shovel and start digging more. Some have a stunning lack of self-awareness, while others are too aware to function. They all, however, seem to be bottomless pits of want and desire and vulnerability. Their need for approval, acceptance, relevancy, and even chaos is so intense that it can feel nauseating at times. Tulathimutte’s writing is not only smart, but laugh-out-loud funny. In “Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,” the newly out narrator tries to explain the vanilla version of his sexual desires to his boyfriend—and his boyfriend cracks an incredible Stanley Kubrick sex joke. The characters, ideas, and symbols echo across the stories, and these metatextual layers—along with the layers of internet lore and memes—create a hilariously brazen and existentially unsettling portrait of modern life, love, and identity.
An inventive and shameless story collection for the chronically online.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780063337879
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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