Suffused with empathy, Nolan’s novel expertly illuminates the parts of ourselves we try to keep in the dark.
The death of a little girl incites controversy, blame, and exploitation in 1990s England.
Ever since she was a baby, Lucy Green never seemed quite right: That’s what her neighbors tell the police officers and journalists swarming their London apartment complex after she’s blamed for the death of 3-year-old Mia Enright. Lucy’s family—her loving grandmother, Rose; reclusive grandfather, John; alcoholic uncle, Richie; and unfit teenage mother, Carmel—arrived in England from Ireland shortly before her birth. In the 10 years since, Lucy’s grandmother, her primary caretaker, died, the surviving adult family members each spun into their own detached, dysfunctional orbits, and Lucy clobbered a classmate with a rock and acquired a reputation. “That little scumbag” is how Tom Hargreaves, the smarmy journalist insinuating himself into the family’s scandal-scarred life, hears her described. Tom can see the headlines already: One little girl murdering another, the cast of scoundrels, the stained family history—it’s the perfect scoop, if it turns out to be true. His journalistic playbook includes lying, bribing, deceiving, and manipulating; he’s equally eager to sequester the family from the eyes of competing journalists and to hoist the tent for his own media circus. As the police interrogate Lucy, Tom does the same to her family members, hungry for any morsel of disgrace. In the process, Carmel reflects on her miserable, dissociative pregnancy, and Richie and John steep in the betrayals and substance abuse of their past. Nolan’s writing is equally painful and propulsive. As you turn the pages, anxious to learn the truth about Lucy and Mia, the story seems to mock your very interest in it: Aren’t you, too, enthralled by the scandal, entranced by these front-page-worthy girls and their pigtailed barbarity?
Suffused with empathy, Nolan’s novel expertly illuminates the parts of ourselves we try to keep in the dark.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780316567787
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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