A well-conceived and well-executed meditation on trust, privacy, and reputation.
A high school deals with a mass faculty doxxing in this debut literary novel.
Clearwater Community High School has been doxxed. The dating profiles, sexts, and nudes of 41 faculty members have just been published by a local gossip website, and the school has unexpectedly collapsed into complete chaos. The material includes a cache of damaging emails sent by popular English teacher Andy Waters; a series of embarrassing texts documenting an ill-fated fling between the gym coach and the physics teacher; and a video of young math teacher Jennifer Watson having sex with the father of one of her students. It falls to Principal Vince Darten—one of the few Black administrators in the affluent White town of Clearwater, Indiana—to respond to the area’s outrage while attempting to support his teachers: “The community reaction was apoplectic. Daily, he met with more students and parents than he did aggrieved teachers. Some demanded transfers or teacher removals; one student claimed he no longer felt safe in Orchestra and asked for the music program to be suspended or dissolved.” The revelation that their teachers are flawed, sexual beings comes as quite a shock to the students, as does the invasive police investigation to catch the anonymous leaker. When it becomes clear that the “Clearwater Cloudburst” is not a one-time event, the pressure is on for Vince to stop the madness before the school tears itself apart. Rossi’s fluid prose shadows the interior lives of his large cast of characters, as here with Lana Collins, the school’s transgender French teacher: “Unlike many of her fellow educators, Lana greeted the release of her files with a sense of grim resignation rather than shock or betrayal. Her whole life, she reflected, constituted unwanted, forced exposure.” The premise is inspired, and the author plays it out in a way that allows him to grapple with a number of contemporary social cleavages. What’s more, the book speaks to that much older, deeper fear of having one’s true self revealed before the community. While the plot is overly neat at times, it makes for a fun, thought-provoking read.
A well-conceived and well-executed meditation on trust, privacy, and reputation.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986641300
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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