This sometimes-gripping, sometimes-labored story of grief, guilt, and healing is uneven, like the recovery it chronicles.
“Can a man who caused the death of his child ever atone enough to be forgiven?” That is the central question raised by Lamb’s novel of every parent’s worst nightmare.
That nightmare becomes a reality for unemployed commercial artist Corby Ledbetter, who cares for toddler twins Maisie and Niko while his wife, Emily, works. One morning in 2017, Corby pops a couple of Ativans, pours rum in his coffee, plays peekaboo with the kids, burns the toast, and ruminates about his marriage, all before backing his car over Niko in the driveway. In these horrific yet riveting opening 12 pages, Corby’s narration is as blatantly unreliable—“It’s not like I’m addicted”—as his character is unsympathetic. His denial and self-pity are infuriating compared to Emily’s raw despair over Niko’s death. But during the course of the next three years, Corby gradually earns more trust. The first turning point occurs when he realizes that lying about his responsibility devalues Niko’s life, and he chooses to confess his intoxication to both Emily and the police. Found guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, he heads to prison for three years, the future of his marriage uncertain. The almost day-by-day recounting of his prison experience makes up the bulk of Corby’s narration. Expect familiar tropes: racist white inmates; sadistic guards; a gossipy gay cellmate who evolves into a genuine, trustworthy friend; a saintly prison librarian who gives Corby space to create art. Corby’s self-education about systemic inequality and racism, however earnest and accurate, tends toward the didactic. But Lamb expertly shows his arduous, bumpy progression toward maturity and creates equally complex characters in Emily and especially in Solomon, an emotionally fragile young inmate Colby takes under his protection, probably saving his life—an ironic parallel neither lost on readers nor overstated.
This sometimes-gripping, sometimes-labored story of grief, guilt, and healing is uneven, like the recovery it chronicles.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781668006399
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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