A unique twist on the thriller genre with an appealing side of female empowerment.
The remaining members of a Kennedy-esque family discover that someone is pulling the strings to destroy their credibility—and maybe even their lives.
Every year when April rolls around, Clara Wieland feels like she’s living on the edge of a knife. After all, an inordinate number of her family members, most recently her own parents, have died in freak accidents during that month, a phenomenon that’s come to be known as the Wieland curse. This year, the month coincides with her older brother Teddy’s run for a Senate seat from their home state of Maine. So, when a compromising video of Clara is released on the internet, the timing couldn’t be worse, for Teddy’s campaign or Clara’s fragile mental health. As she hides away to survive the cruel comments of internet trolls, Clara starts having hallucinations of her dead parents. Teddy has little patience for his sister; he’s been caring for her for years, through devastating bouts with an eating disorder and through her grief. But Teddy’s wife, Jess, was Clara’s best friend before they were in-laws, and she’s more apt to listen—so when she, too, is targeted by an internet video that appears to be a deepfake, she believes Clara’s insistence that something else is going on. Maybe it’s the curse; maybe it’s someone with a grudge against the wealthy, powerful Wielands. Either way, Clara and Jess have to look beyond their complicated family/friend relationship to uncover the truth. Clara is a frustrating protagonist at first, since her trauma has led to self-destructive habits that she seems little inclined to face or change, but Sligar renders her with such complexity and compassion that it’s easy to cheer when she begins to figure things out—and when she rejects the convenient trap of the curse narrative, finding power and agency as she learns to trust in her own intelligence.
A unique twist on the thriller genre with an appealing side of female empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780374282295
Page Count: 400
Publisher: MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.
Following her father’s sudden death, Aisling Swann is secretly horrified when her mother begins to date again—and she quickly becomes suspicious of this new flame.
Four years ago: A mysterious male narrator reflects upon his relationship with his wife—along with a few pointed comments about how she is aging. It quickly becomes apparent that this self-proclaimed “very pleasant” man is not who he seems; he already has a girlfriend on the side, and he’s playing both women with sob stories about his job and his traumatic past while taking money from them. Even as they get more and more frustrated with his lack of communication during ever-lengthening absences, he still gives them what they want: “a top-notch husband.” In the present day, Ash Swann; her brother, Arlo; and their mother, Nina, mourn the loss of her charismatic father, Paddy, a successful chef with a chain of lucrative restaurants. Nina receives a sympathy note from a man who claims to have worked closely with Paddy in the industry, which leads to a robust online flirtation that moves into the real world about a year after her husband’s death. Ash is living at home, mired in grief as well as her own mental health struggles, and she’s none too happy to see her mom dating—but particularly this handsome, egregiously suave Nick Radcliffe. Ash begins to notice some inconsistencies with his stories and his past, so she enlists Paddy’s ex-girlfriend Jane to help her investigate. Meanwhile, Ash’s story continues to intercut that of the mysterious man who is now married to his former girlfriend—and still up to his old tricks. Jewell’s cutting between past and present certainly allows revelations to ooze out at a slow, controlled pace; even as the reader makes obvious connections, the full picture remains obscure. Jewell has written some incredibly engaging and strong female characters, Nina, Ash, and Jane foremost among them. What would it have been like to split the narrative between them instead of giving so much voice—and thus narrative power—to the male antagonist?
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781668033876
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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