An engrossing novel that challenges stale narratives of colonial America.
In Rader’s 17th-century-set drama, an English settler in the New World attempts to rescue his wife, who has been kidnapped by Indigenous people.
In the 1670s, war breaks out between English settlers who are arriving in the New World in increasing number and the River Indians who have been dispossessed of their land, led by Metacomet, whom the English dub King Philip. Benjamin Waite, who lives in Hatfield (part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) with his wife Martha and his three daughters, is reluctantly drawn into the conflict and marches off to attack a neighboring Indian village—to his great horror, his band massacres the mostly defenseless natives, including women and children, in a grotesque slaughter chillingly captured by the author. “I wiped away hot tears and sweat from my face with my gloved hand. Men torched wigwams and watched them burn. The mighty river swept people and canoes over the falls, and the white water sparkled in the sun, mocking the horror.” In a cataclysm of retaliation, the River Indians raid Hatfield while the men are working in the fields and kidnap Martha and her daughters. Overwhelmed by fear and grief, and not even sure who is responsible, Ben attempts to organize a search party and retrieve his family before it is too late. Rader paints a stirring picture with the subtlest of brush strokes—this is no simplistic struggle between good and evil. Both sides have earned the right to some grievances, and both commit unspeakable atrocities. Martha, in particular, is an impressively drawn character, deep and complex; she is horrified, even while in captivity, by the terrible things Ben has done to her captors. The conclusion of the book may strike some readers as a bit tidy and even sentimental, but, overall, this is a moving work, dramatically compelling and historically searching.
An engrossing novel that challenges stale narratives of colonial America.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9798885280778
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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 debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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