A gritty, atmospheric debut, told with all the bravado of its moonshine-running hero.
Elliott’s novel, set in 1950s Appalachia, follows a rebellious teen from a family of bootleggers who chases a dream of becoming a self-made race-car driver.
The book was apparently inspired, in part, by the creation of NASCAR, whose first drivers operated cars that had been souped up specifically to avoid law enforcement. In 1950, 16-year-old Gene Daves of Lawndale, North Carolina, has long been involved in illegal alcohol trade, and he’s a skilled driver and car enthusiast. The story flourishes with vivid regional detail of backwoods junkyards, red clay tracks, and swampland moonshine stills as its determined protagonist transforms over the years from a local outlaw to a rising racing star known as “Stick Elliott.” Later, he becomes involved with the daughter of his driving sponsor, who “saw him not only for who he was—a man living in the fast lane, swerving in and out of people’s lives—but for the man he wanted to be.” As the plot brims with Gene’s outlaw spirit and mechanical grit, the prose leans more into energy than introspection—even when more emotional depth would be welcome. The pacing is brisk, giving readers a taste of the regional setting, and the supporting cast includes a mix of tough mentors, rogue rivals, and eccentric types. The story feels lived in, even when the characters feel more like archetypes than real people. Overall, the tale, while simple, is about generational tension at its heart: a young man chasing modern fame under the watchful eye of a grandfather who values tradition over everything else. The novel even dips into mythmaking with recurring images that symbolize deeper themes, such as python boots (“Do you know anything about pythons in Greek mythology?” asks the man who sells such footwear to Gene) and ghostly churches in the swamp. This gives the story’s rugged realism a dreamlike sheen. Fans of car culture and Southern history, along with those who can’t help but root for the underdog, will find plenty to love.
A gritty, atmospheric debut, told with all the bravado of its moonshine-running hero.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798886453898
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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