A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.
In Matthews’ novel, a young Australian man discovers his late cousin’s secret life.
Dan Molina had always been a generous father figure to his 31-year-old cousin, Jamie Barrio, who manages Dan’s collectibles shop. In the wake of Dan’s death, Jamie struggles to adjust to the new reality of his life in Sydney, Australia, without him. Days after the funeral, a lawyer contacts Jamie with Dan’s final gift: a mysterious thumb drive containing hours of audio files. Jamie soon finds that each recording is a spoken letter by Dan, addressed to a mysterious “Ethan” and ending with the salutation “With love, Dad.” Jamie is baffled; is Ethan the child of a secret love affair? Why would Dan want Jamie to find out about it like this? Intrigued, Jamie plunges into the files, which tell the story of his late cousin’s trip to Perth, when abdominal pain landed him in the hospital. “I’ve never been so afraid as I am now,” Dan says, as he explains to the mysterious Ethan that doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong with him. He also tells Ethan about his childhood as a boy who was constantly teased for his weight; his struggles to connect with his own emotionally distant father; how he met Beatrice, his future wife and the love of his life; and how he became a respected consultant. Buried in the family mythology, however, is something deeper and more melancholy: “Was the road I chose the one less travelled by?” Dan asks Ethan, before he speaks of learning about bisexuality and queerness. Jamie soon realizes that these tapes reveal not only the up and downs of Dan’s life, but also deep secrets about his sexuality.
In an introduction, Matthews notes that his novel is based on a true story, and one that he found “instantly intriguing” and “painfully beautiful.” One could describe his book in a similar manner, as it grabs one’s attention from the beginning with several unfolding mysteries. Readers will find themselves asking some of the same questions as Jamie: Who is Ethan, and why did Dan share these communications with Jamie? Matthew smartly layers the narrative with multiple perspectives; alongside Jamie’s and Dan’s points of view is that of Dan’s nurse during his hospital stay, who contributes her own recollections. However, it’s Dan’s mournful, pensive voice that makes the strongest impression. His reflections on family life, especially as the child of immigrants from Uruguay, are filled with engaging observations and heartbreaking moments, whether he’s speaking of how his father continually disappointed him or his own hesitation to give in same-sex attractions. Matthews takes his time getting to the queer aspects of the story, and as a result, some of the earlier passages focused on Dan’s professional life, or his experience of the hospital, feel as if they’re merely stalling for time before bigger reveals. It all leads to a satisfying emotional conclusion, though, which connects to issues involving family, sexuality, and what it means to truly understand a loved one.
A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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