A bold, largely plotless, and beautifully insightful tale about a poet.
A novel charts a young female writer’s struggles with life and language.
In the opening of this first installment of a trilogy, Lucy Jinx works at Hernando’s Highlights, a magazine produced by the fictional store chain Hernando’s Grocery. Her office is in a trailer and her co-worker Ariel, who has a more “standard life” than Lucy, is also significantly more diligent. Lucy is partial to wandering into work after 11 a.m. and is candid about plagiarizing in her pieces. While Lucy writes film reviews and manages the “Open Submissions to Poetry Corner mailbox,” her true passion is writing poems herself. The novel has very little plot—Lucy quarrels with Ariel, gets asked to babysit for her landlord, ponders the idea of moving in with an admirer called Katrin, and procrastinates about opening an important letter. On other occasions, Lucy is preoccupied with everyday decisions, such as which panties to wear. As the story progresses, Lucy’s life seems to slip by in a blur of unremarkable events and awkward social interactions. But written steadfastly from Lucy’s point of view, D’Stair’s book allows readers to gain an intimate understanding of the hero’s poetic gaze, which sees beyond the seemingly banal surface behavior of others with artistic intentions. As Lucy moves through her world, the author notes, her mind is “already upstairs scribbling.” This is a tale about a poet’s inner life and, perhaps more accurately, her magpie mind constantly procuring imagery from the outside world to embellish her writing.
Lucy moves through what many would dismiss as an uninspiringly humdrum environment. But her unique rereading of her surroundings is what makes this novel so delightful, as when she visits Katrin’s apartment: “Lucy remarks to herself how sprawlingly long and thin Katrin’s place is, like a sideways-tipped cereal box the size of a house—and is at least twice as large.” Lucy’s endearing observations are marked by an almost childlike curiosity and sense of wonder. D’Stair’s use of language is consistently striking, lyrical, and imbued with a similarly playful energy: “This place. This place where Lucy Jinx is. This whole area. It’s untenable. It’s cumbersomed up, gone bulbous-labyrinthine. Regardless of trying to choose a hidey-hole, the place’ll get its fat fingers ’round yer throat and throttle you, girl!” At moments like these, readers will feel as if they are inside Lucy’s mind, listening to her dictate the narrative of her own life as it happens. There are also intriguing moments when Lucy attempts a poetic description but then revises it: “The car is like the sour in the gut from too much wine with a head cold. Try again: The car is like the sour in the gut from too much apple juice and cigarettes.” This is a clever take on the creative process and a poet’s obsessive necessity to shape and reshape words to best capture a subject. This makes for a densely reflexive, intentionally staccato narrative, which will not appeal to everyone and is best enjoyed in short sittings. The fact that very little happens in the book will deter some, but those who persevere will enjoy a cleverly conceived, smartly observant story that delves intriguingly into how a poet thinks.
A bold, largely plotless, and beautifully insightful tale about a poet.Pub Date: May 19, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 474
Publisher: Late Marriage Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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