There’s not an ounce of Mario Puzo’s romanticism in this grimly riveting tale of crime and punishment.
Italian journalist/novelist Saviano continues his exploration of Neapolitan youth gangs with a sequel to The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples (2018).
Nicolas Fiorillo, who bears the nom de crime Maraja, is emphatically not a nice guy. As Saviano’s novel opens, we find him in an obstetrics ward, where he’s about to rub out a newborn boy. “Come s’accide ’nu criaturo, Tuca’?” How do you kill a baby, Tucano?” he asks a lieutenant. He’s got reason: The baby is the son of the man who killed his brother, just one chit in a long roster of back-and-forth murders among the paranzas, the savage youth gangs, of Naples. Maraja has what might be called a Napoleonic complex, but he really wants to be the Godfather: “Nicolas had always had a weak spot for Don Vito Corleone. He felt just like him: courage above everything else. But that ignoramus of a lawyer was having trouble even registering his Brando imitation.” But there are other, grown-up Godfathers whom he must serve first, moving drugs, illegal weapons, prostitutes, and other contraband for bosses like a certain Don Vittorio, to whom Nicolas pledges fealty with the decidedly medieval act of delivering the detached head of a murdered rival. Nicolas is a gangster, but a learned one, preparing to relate the story of Hasdrubal Barca, the Carthaginian leader whom the Romans beheaded, “which is the way of victors.” Instead, writes Saviano, Maraja can barely squeak out, “Don Vitto’, is this loyalty enough to make you trust the paranza?” Alas, the tests are many, and when Nicolas falls short of them, betrayed by his endless ambition and inexperience, he must pay a stiff penalty. The wheel continues to turn, though; the book closes with teenage boys even younger than Maraja, Tucano, Lollipop, and the other young gangsters of a gang that burns, stabs, and shoots its way to renown and even adulation.
There’s not an ounce of Mario Puzo’s romanticism in this grimly riveting tale of crime and punishment.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-10795-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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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