A lively story with an intricate setting but single-note supporting characters.
The world of a talented L.A. painter is upended when a woman buys his artwork.
Virgilio Santos, a self-described “former street artist and small-time savior,” lives on Sixth Street in downtown L.A. In between life at his apartment with his mother, who practices Santeria, and the time he spends painting at the community center, Virgilio hangs out often at his beloved Sixth Street Bridge. Beatrice Schein, an art curator, sees Virgilio’s paintings and buys them all, offering to propel him to stardom in the art world. Beatrice’s privileged worldview and white-savior tendencies, as well as warnings from his loved ones, make him reluctant, but Virgilio accepts her offer. Meanwhile, a construction project has the neighborhood crisscrossed with tunnels that house various illicit activities, from cockfighting to drug rings. Virgilio’s friends Concha and Sexto are caught up in all of it. Virgilio learns that the “King of the Underworld” is actually Beatrice’s father and that he must avoid romantic involvement with his latest art patron; otherwise, Mr. Schein will tear down his apartment and the Sixth Street Bridge. Everything comes to a head when Virgilio is on his art tour with Beatrice in Paris. Ortega-Medina’s book, with its obvious references to Dante’s Inferno, has a lot going on, but in a good way. Virgilio’s tale engages readers throughout, even though his self-perception—particularly regarding his relationships with those around him—is somewhat skewed. The novel’s tunnel world is also fascinating. The secondary characters, however, often seem to be in service to Virgilio and little else. Virgilio’s mother, Celia, worries about Virgilio; Concha, a trans woman, is in love with Virgilio; Sexto, Virgilio’s “oversexed” friend, lusts after Virgilio, etc., etc. Essentially, Virgilio is a respected, talented, and attractive young man, and everyone wants a piece of him, and he must take on the burden of “saving” these people by being there for them, even though what he wants most is to paint. This portrayal of Virgilio as the sun with the other characters orbiting around him grows tiresome, even as the plot surrounding these characters thickens.
A lively story with an intricate setting but single-note supporting characters.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1838045111
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Cloud Lodge Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
