Williams’ genealogy of pain and survival pulls no punches.
“The South takes from you, and the North can’t save you,” muses one of the matriarchs in Williams’ sprawling, affecting saga of the Dupree family.
Weaving together the stories of the complex lives of several generations of Black women from the 1860s to the 2020s, Williams delivers accounts of self-determination, resilience, and resistance in the face of monstrous violence, prejudice, and misogyny. Tati, a Chicago teenager prone to documenting her thoughts in poetry, searches for clues about the identity of her absent father, a man her single mother, Nadia, avoids talking about. Tati’s grandmother, Gladys, carries secrets of her own. When Tati asks about the details of Gladys’ move in the 1950s from the family’s hometown of Land’s End, Alabama, her questions are rebuffed: “Everything don’t need to be remembered,” is Gladys’ shrouded reply. The harrowing, cautionary, and sorrowful stories of prior ancestors Ruby, Jubilee, and Emma are recounted as Williams gradually reveals the history of earlier generations of the Dupree family. The spectral presence of the earliest Dupree daughter, whose identity and life story remain obscured by the passage of time and long-term secrecy, is omnipresent throughout the generations. As Tati continues her investigations into her own heritage, family secrets are sometimes reluctantly shared. Unvarnished descriptions of the atrocities of slavery and racism, as well as their corrosive aftermath, are conveyed directly and brutally. Rising out of the horrors, however, are the strong and unique bonds among the “uppity-ass Dupree women.” (Realistically, not all the bonds are immediately those of affection.) A beautifully woven motif of Black women caring for each other’s hair as a comfort, livelihood, or sign of closeness runs throughout the book, reinforcing the images of female power.
Williams’ genealogy of pain and survival pulls no punches.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781668051948
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 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
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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