Measured, witty, captivating tales starring a series of resilient, likable female characters.
A short-story collection plumbs the depths of girlhood, life, and suburban survival.
Hosey channels the lives of young women across the expanse of 10 tales that are alternatingly titillating, shocking, harrowing, poignant, and compelling. In the opener, “Christine,” two suburban adolescent girls befriend and then start parenting a toddler they meet at a playground, which begins as a fun project but becomes too serious when they escalate their efforts to care for the child on their own. The title story is striking and clever as it depicts two girls, both in love with the same abusive, cheating video store clerk, who agree to participate in the man’s robbery scheme but wind up bonding in other ways instead. Elsewhere, a nun’s fall from grace in “Blessed Virgin” comes as a blessing when she realizes she can finally be the queer woman she feels she is inside without consequences or judgment. Plenty of phallic humor permeates the comical and family-centric “Not For Everyone,” one of the volume’s longest tales. Hosey has a firm grasp of the minor details that give readers a fully illuminated image of the characters she depicts and the nostalgic era, mostly the 1980s and ’90s, in which they live. Preteen girls, “both summer-brown overlaid with pink sunburn on their shoulders and cheeks,” chew grape gum and gossip about the TV series Dynasty; others use pay phones, star-69 one another, and obsess over the musician Dave Matthews. A calm, comforting man becomes the equivalent of “human Xanax” for a needy woman in one story. The author’s knack for characterization is keenly realized throughout these tales with remarkably descriptive flair. The Walden Pond tour guide in “Land Mammals,” about a downtrodden college teacher who is enlivened by a Thoreau impersonator, is described as a “sickly-looking older woman who probably believes that old lie about how it is impossible to be too thin.” There’s also a refreshing range of locales, from the wintry setting of suburban Wisconsin to the leafy, wooded historical community of Concord, Massachusetts. Every story in Hosey’s distinguished, engrossing collection is memorable, suffused with meaning and emotion, with characters exhibiting the grace and wisdom of age or the testiness of youth. This is splendidly entertaining reading, particularly for fans of women’s fiction.
Measured, witty, captivating tales starring a series of resilient, likable female characters.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9783988320407
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Vine Leaves Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 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.
