A clever, endearing, and funny tale of one woman’s missteps and her efforts to atone.
A socially awkward millennial and small-town criminal sees the error of her ways—but can she change them?
In a suburban Kansas community center health club, fanatical exerciser Ann Josephson is sweating it out six days a week early in 2016. She’s the sticky-fingered, mid-20s protagonist of Hitchcock’s devilishly fun second novel. While scoping out a woman’s unsecured belongings in the locker room, Ann, whose pessimistic interior monologue dominates much of the narrative, innocently remarks, “Anyone could just walk up and take it, but I actually do.” Ann steals at will, adding pilfered items to the ever expanding “junk mountain” kept at home. Apart from her rampant kleptomania, she struggles as a graphic designer while keeping up appearances for her affluent, well-meaning parents, who keep her financially afloat. Her therapist prescribes regular doses of encouragement, particularly when a friendly fellow gym-goer named Joe invites her to join his dodgeball team. As the gym warns members about the thief among them, Ann becomes distracted by the possibilities of jump-starting her nonexistent personal life. Joe’s offer hits Ann’s needy sweet spot, and soon they’re dating, but a twist near the end makes her rethink every aspect of her sociopathic side hustle. While an entertaining, contemporary psychological character study, the story also intelligently reflects upon society, anxiety, depression, and the implicitly competitive, body-conscious social dynamics of gym culture (Ann calls the rush of new members in January “Resolutionaries”). Narrated by Ann, the novel initially doesn’t work quite hard enough to make its hero likable, but ultimately Ann’s attempts at self-reflection and corrective behavior draw readers closer to a woman with a warm heart behind all the chilly, snappish dissatisfaction with others. While the novel has humor, humanity, and pathos, perhaps its best quality lies in Hitchcock’s talent for making you care about whether a socially challenged, mean-spirited thief can become a self-aware, remorseful sweetheart thanks to a smitten cop.
A clever, endearing, and funny tale of one woman’s missteps and her efforts to atone.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64742-373-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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