An exploration of a troubled young man’s sexual odyssey in need of extensive editing.
A young man goes from one sexual relationship to another in an effort to mend his broken heart.
After coming of age in a life fraught with emotional turmoil, Miller Hoffman, the teenage protagonist of the author’s debut novel, In the Middle (2013), is back in a sequel spanning his college years in the early to mid-1990s, from his freshman year at the University of Arkansas through his graduation from Birmingham City College in Alabama. Still troubled, unable to get over his breakup with his girlfriend, Bobbie Lamont, a few years before, Miller tries to forget her by engaging in sexual relationships with women his age, younger women, and older women (his stepmother, his college professor, Bobbie’s best friend). Each woman falls hard for sad-eyed, “acne-scarred,” self-absorbed, morose Miller, including Michelle, whom the author identifies as a lesbian who only “dates” women but has sex with men. During these mostly short-lived encounters, Miller is too “honest” not to hide his love for Bobbie. This, and the tattoo on his chest paying tribute to her, eventually spurs the heartbroken departures of several women. In the end, Miller’s sudden decision to change his life appears less convincing than convenient. Virtually everything else that occurs and most of the novel’s other characters are either peripheral to or actively concerned with Miller’s sexual relationships, many of which follow an oddly jejune pattern: Women gear themselves up to tell Miller they want to be his girlfriend; he thinks he’d like to be their boyfriend. They are nervous, and/or he is nervous. They then have (tame) sex and have difficulty expressing their true feelings. They smoke many cigarettes. (The number of cigarettes smoked throughout the novel is wildly distracting.) The author depicts the characters as “chuckling,” “sighing,” and/or “frowning” on nearly every page, sometimes within the same paragraph. The author’s attempt to give his narrative substance—Miller’s estrangement from his father, his loss of close friends to violence, his social anxiety, his feeling of being unloved; female characters’ uncertainties and loneliness—is intermittently touching but falls far short of its potential in a novel that reads like a rough first draft.
An exploration of a troubled young man’s sexual odyssey in need of extensive editing. (author bio, end notes)Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 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
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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