An enormously fun and addictively readable story of redemption in the seedy world of stadium rock music.
In Jayce’s fiction debut, a washed-up music producer will do anything to find a lost album—or die trying.
Jensen Bennett is separated from his wife, on the wrong side of 30, the lap dog of his employer at Wicked Records, and facing an enormous bouncer who won’t let him backstage to see the hit group Quiet Catastrophe. Bennett discovered the band and shepherded them to stardom with their first two albums, but his own rotten behavior has alienated him from the group. Wicked Records has heard a rumor that the band has breached their contract by secretly recording their third album, House Made of Sound, and Bennett has been dispatched to get the master recordings by any means necessary. With the help of a lovely medium named Daphne, he gets backstage at last but finds nothing—so he stows away on the band’s plane, hoping for a chance to steal the album and somehow get his life back on track. Instead, the plane crashes, and when Bennett wakes up, he’s in some kind of afterlife; he’s told that although his mortal body is still back at the crash site clinging to life, the members of Quiet Catastrophe are as “dead as disco,” leaving Bennett with the task of finding them in this weird paradise and learning the location of that elusive third album before he’s pulled back to life. From these strange elements, the author has carefully constructed an absolutely winning story, a rousing, funny, and surprisingly moving tale of love lost (as Bennett points out to himself, he hasn’t loved many people in his life—but he’d loved the lead singer of Quiet Catastrophe, back when they’d been as close as brothers) and love found (Daphne’s assistance may serve as the prelude to a real romance). Jayce’s elegant prose is a joy to read: “But now the void, familiar and unwelcome, had come home. His thoughts returned to the empty wallet, and to the ousted presidents that once held office there.” Readers won’t want the novel to end.
An enormously fun and addictively readable story of redemption in the seedy world of stadium rock music.Pub Date: March 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798218174378
Page Count: 393
Publisher: Miller's Arch Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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