This charming canine tale offers a feel-good escape from the weight of fraught headlines.
In this novel inspired by a true story, two stray dogs in the woods set three strangers on a yearlong rescue operation that creates friendships and inspires major life changes.
It is April, and Bell has just picked up two birthday cakes for a celebration at her home when she pulls over to the side of Langston Road to let an aggressive driver in a tailgating Jeep pass. Bell hears something in the woods, but no human or animal appears—until her second drive down the road. This is when she spots two emaciated and frightened canines, a mother and her young pup, peering out from the foliage. Meanwhile, Emma, who turns out to be the “Jeep Lady” who has been burning rubber down Langston Road, has also spotted the two dogs. She too has been trying to entice the animals out of the woods. Then there is Charles, a driver for a logging company, who has been giving snacks to the hungry strays. It is not until December, in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, that the three rescuers finally meet on the road, each bringing something to help the now solitary puppy through the downpour and learning for the first time that they have all been on the same mission. The three protagonists in Campbell’s upbeat tale about new friendships and fresh beginnings are not fully three-dimensional, but their personal journeys through this swiftly paced adventure are engaging. The author supplies plenty of delightful canine antics (Bell already cares for a devoted, four-dog pack), although the descriptions of pooches and backstories are repeated too often. Naturally, with so many animals taking center stage, there is a tear-inducing episode. But there is also excitement, especially when a tornado rips through the small Southern town. Although Campbell’s frequent use of staccato onomatopoeia (“Splash. Thud. Splash.”) and unadorned prose make the narrative especially appropriate for younger readers, dog lovers of all ages will find the story enjoyable.
This charming canine tale offers a feel-good escape from the weight of fraught headlines.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986645711
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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