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THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF BOOK LOVERS

An elegantly crafted, unhurried examination of the enthralling and elusive nature of love.

A young woman in a rural French village acts as a matchmaker, but she worries she will never find love of her own.

Marie-Jeanne has possessed a special gift since her earliest days: She is able to detect a certain light that shines from people who have been touched by love. As a child, Marie-Jeanne was surprised to discover that others were unable to see that same light. When her foster father, Francis, hatches the idea of starting a mobile book library, Marie-Jeanne is thrilled by the idea of encountering more people and increasing her understanding of the mysterious glow. Francis takes the necessary steps to launch his mobile lending library and begins bringing new reading material to different villagers throughout Nyons, France. The “bookabus,” as the traveling library becomes known, grows quickly in popularity, and Marie-Jeanne travels along, delivering books as Francis’ assistant. As she sees that unusual glow coming from so many of the people she meets, she realizes the light shines more brightly when a person’s true love is near. Using a combination of her gift and lessons from books featured throughout the story, she is able to unite one pair of lovers after another. Unfortunately, her own light fails to shine, and she becomes increasingly concerned that she will never find her own match. Told from the perspective of Love itself—similar to the way The Book Thief is narrated by Death—the novel is brimming with magic. Love is wise and enigmatic, frustrating Marie-Jeanne by refusing to reveal certain information. Also making cameos are other metaphysical elements such as Logic and Fate. A loquacious olive tree serves as a mentor to Marie-Jeanne, doling out advice about the nature of love and meaning of life. Full of allegory and mysticism, the book often feels more like a poem than a novel. Though she mentions a few dates, author George limits the inclusion of modern inventions, creating a sense that the story takes place outside time. The plot moves slowly, with significantly more focus on concepts and emotions than action. What the story lacks in plot, however, it makes up in nuanced and enchanting introspection about love and books.

An elegantly crafted, unhurried examination of the enthralling and elusive nature of love.

Pub Date: July 25, 2023

ISBN: 9780593157886

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

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BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL

A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.

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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

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NEVER FLINCH

Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.

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Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?

In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.

Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.

Pub Date: May 27, 2025

ISBN: 9781668089330

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025

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