A fresh, engrossing take on the political novel with a striking hero.
A disillusioned ex–Secret Service agent finds himself involved in a long-shot presidential campaign.
In this novel, ambitious Secret Service agent Dan Cahill gets himself exiled to Las Vegas after losing his temper at a congressional hearing. When he leaks a story about diplomatic misconduct two years before his planned retirement, he brings his career to an end. With his newfound free time, Dan reconnects with his daughter, Megan, a college student, and reluctantly tags along when she invites him to a talk by Walter Becker, her favorite professor. When Megan and classmates use the lecture to draft Walter to run for president in the Nevada primary, Dan reluctantly joins in to support his daughter—despite his general opposition to her liberal views and his world-weary dislike of politicians from all parties. Walter decides to run as a single-issue candidate, promoting a Manhattan Project–like strategy for curing cancer, and takes an unconventional approach to campaigning. Walter’s election methodology and Megan's enthusiasm wear away at Dan’s cynicism, as does the arrival of Anna Morales, the young governor of New Mexico who has only a slightly better chance against the dominant Republican in her primary than Walter has against the establishment Democrat. The campaigns endure ups and downs as the election approaches, leading to surprising twists and an outcome that is as much about Dan’s personal growth as it is about the leadership of the United States. Kutler brings an innovative approach to familiar tropes of political fiction—idealistic young activists, an outsider willing to risk it all, a shoestring campaign—making the novel a welcome addition to the genre. The writing is engaging (surrounded by enthusiastic young progressives, Dan “declined the overture from his seat neighbors to participate, just as he would’ve politely declined an invitation to be waterboarded”). While the plot meanders a bit before getting moving (Walter’s first appearance comes nearly a hundred pages in) and there are a few scenes that add color without pushing the story forward, the book as a whole is such an enjoyable and satisfying one that readers are likely to accept its length.
A fresh, engrossing take on the political novel with a striking hero.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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