A strange, dramatic novel where all’s well, or not well, or perhaps both.
A chronically ill theater professor upends her life when she stages Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well.
After a freak accident, Miranda Fitch—who was a dazzling, up-and-coming stage actress—loses her acting career, her marriage, and her formerly pain-free life. Working at a university’s “once flourishing, now decrepit Theater Studies program,” Miranda is spiraling out of control. Her days pass in a flurry of pills, doctor appointments, and dissociative conversations; she struggles to manage her chronic pain and to make others believe the extent of her suffering: “On vague fire in various places, all over, all over. Burning too with humiliation and rage.” Awad is particularly deft in describing the hellish nature of pain and the ways those living with chronic pain are often misled, dismissed, or derided. During a particularly tumultuous appointment with one of her doctors, Miranda says she knows what he thinks of her: “One of those patients. One of those sad cartoon brains who wants to live under a smudgy sky of her own making.” For the student production, Miranda wants to stage the “problem play” that took everything from her: Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. But her students—her lively, limber, and treacherous students—want to put on Macbeth, and it looks like they will get their way until Miranda meets three strange men in a bar. In exchange for “a good show,” the men offer her what she’s always wanted: no more pain. Once Miranda realizes how to transpose her pain to others, her luck begins to change—or does it? As her physical aching dissipates, almost everything else in her life becomes more vibrant. However, when no longer tethered to her pain, Miranda becomes unmoored from reality in increasingly dangerous and deranged ways. Imbued with magic and Shakespearean themes, the novel swings wildly between tragedy and comedy and reality and unreality. Although the novel sometimes struggles under the weight of its own surreality, Awad artfully and acutely explores suffering, artistry, and the limitations of empathy.
A strange, dramatic novel where all’s well, or not well, or perhaps both.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982169-66-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.
In Lee’s paranormal romantic thriller, a young woman in New Orleans is plunged into a terrifying but intriguing underworld after striking a bargain for her brother’s life.
Twenty-four-year-old trauma nurse Cate Holloway’s life takes a dramatic turn when her 19-year-old brother, Channing, is rushed to the ER with a gunshot wound while she’s on duty.Even more shocking for Cate is the discovery that Channing is in debt to the notorious Gage crime family, who practically rule New Orleans. They distribute the street drug “clover,” pay off all the right people, and even own the hospital where Cate works. She resolves to keep Channing safe, and directly confronts crime boss Lachlan Gage at the lavish Avalon Hotel. Lachlan presents Cate with a bargain: trade her soul in exchange for her sibling’s. Cate accepts, even though she thinks the idea is ridiculous, and seals the deal by taking a bite of an apple Lachlan gives her. She’s then transported to a realm called the Otherworld, where she finds out that the Gages are fae royalty, and that getting out of a fae bargain is almost impossible. Now tethered to Lachlan, she has to figure out how to free herself; along the way, she must navigate fae politics between royal families, a blossoming friendship with Lachlan’s sister Ciara, and her own undeniable attraction to Lachlan himself, who just might be more than the monster she thinks he is. Lee’s skillfully written dark urban fantasy novel is infused with classic fae lore, humor (“So, you claim that you aren’t pixies or garden gnomes,” Cate muses), and meticulous worldbuilding. All the major characters, and especially the fiercely independent and capable Cate and the rakish yet family-oriented antagonist/love interest Lachlan, are well developed and compelling. The book’s richly detailed descriptions of clothing, architecture, and fae customs will immerse readers in the Otherworld and cause them to linger long after the final page. Readers may particularly enjoy the steady buildup of romantic tension and appreciate that the relationship resists problematic tropes, instead emphasizing consent and mutual respect.
A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781649375773
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving, hilarious reminder that parenthood, just like life, means constant change.
During an annual beach vacation, a mother confronts her past and learns to move forward.
Her family’s annual trip to Cape Cod is always the highlight of Rocky’s year—even more so now that her children are grown and she cherishes what little time she gets with them. Rocky is deep in the throes of menopause, picking fights with her loving husband and occasionally throwing off her clothes during a hot flash, much to the chagrin of her family. She’s also dealing with her parents, who are crammed into the same small summer house (with one toilet that only occasionally spews sewage everywhere) and who are aging at an alarmingly rapid rate. Rocky’s life is full of change, from her body to her identity—she frequently flashes back to the vacations of years past, when her children were tiny. Although she’s grateful for the family she has, she mourns what she’s lost. Newman (author of the equally wonderful We All Want Impossible Things, 2022) imbues Rocky’s internal struggles with importance and gravity, all while showcasing her very funny observations about life and parenting. She examines motherhood with a raw honesty that few others manage—she remembers the hard parts, the depths of despair, panic, and anxiety that can happen with young children, and she also recounts the joy in a way that never feels saccharine. She has a gift for exploring the real, messy contradictions in human emotions. As Rocky puts it, “This may be the only reason we were put on this earth. To say to each other, I know how you feel.”
A moving, hilarious reminder that parenthood, just like life, means constant change.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780063345164
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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