A well-crafted, timely response to the myriad anxieties of navigating life in 2023.
Ola Olajide, a feminist journalist in London, is preparing for her wedding to Michael Koranteng, a podcaster who’s just landed his dream job, when his name appears on a list of abusers in the media industry.
Deeply in love, Ola and Michael find their lives turned upside down when a document known as The List is released on Twitter. Michael has been accused of “harassment and threatening behavior/Physical assault at office Christmas party,” followed by “ ‘Restraining order’ in brackets,” alongside a football legend accused of homophobia and a musician accused of rape. Ola is torn between her instinct to believe women and her disbelief that Michael could be guilty. Michael, who professes his innocence, obsessively combs through his romantic and sexual past trying to understand who his accuser could be, resulting in his rapidly declining mental health. With a relentless pace, the countdown to the wedding urges the reader onto the next chapter, then the next. As the story alternates between Ola’s and Michael’s perspectives, the release of The List prompts a series of events that quickly evade either character’s control. The insidious misogyny of the media world Ola and Michael orbit will be instantly recognizable to readers following the revelations of the #MeToo movement, and Adegoke also skewers the corporate Insta-feminism represented by Ola’s boss with ferocious accuracy. At the same time, she explores the real-world ramifications of an internet culture that lets people freely and anonymously accuse others. The List haunts Ola, forcing her to consider whether she’ll ever be able to trust Michael again, whether her career—built on calling out injustice—can survive her affiliation with an accused man. This is a book that forces the reader to consider the lengths to which they’d go to salvage their reputation—and protect their loved ones.
A well-crafted, timely response to the myriad anxieties of navigating life in 2023.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780063274877
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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