A briskly paced story of youth in a small, troubled town.
A relationship between two teenagers causes controversy in a small Southern town in this debut novel.
Mendenhall’s work, set in the bucolic fictional town of Andalusia, is a first-person coming-of-age tale told by a character named Cephas. Its tale of “illicit love and unfortunate loss” takes place in the 1970s, as Cephas looks back on his journey toward maturity during his boyhood with good buddies Michael Warren, whose father shared a law office with Cephas’; impulsive Lump; and introverted Brett Cox. The novel’s spirited, condensed plot features townspeople who feel betrayed by two of their own, and believably vivid courtroom scenes highlight an era in which ideas of social morality were upheld with strict deliverance. New families occasionally and unceremoniously arrive in town, but some don’t fare too well and depart mysteriously—as in the case of the Finkelmans,whose patriarch was accused of standing by his window, “playing with himself where everyone can see.” Meanwhile, the boys’ afternoons of innocent mischief are clouded by a complex and forbidden relationship between Brett’s 18-year-old brother Tommy (who “would never reason beyond the capacity of a child”) and Michael’s 13-year-old sister Sarah, who’s seen as the “beating heart” of the town of Andalusia. The truth emerges after the boys catch the pair together and Sarah subsequently confesses everything to Cephas. In the eyes of the law, Tommy’s actions constitute statutory rape and, in the fiery aftermath of a courtroom’s shocking verdict, the town’s reputation as a “bastion of conformity and consistency” is tested.
Mendenhall is a prolific writer of academic criticism and nonfiction,including Shouting Softly: Lines on Law, Literature, and Culture(2021) and in this first foray into literature, he shines. The title is drawn from a line in Romeo and Julietand one can easily draw comparisons to the plot of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird(1960). The author demonstrates a remarkable talent for relating an atmosphere of class and racial division; the region, bordered by “haunted forests” and Native American burial mounds, comes alive with elaborate and rich history; there’s a majestic Georgian revival oak-paneled courthouse, a tall, broken town clock which “stared down like a panoptic cyclops,” and a legend of “an old blind man, the oracle in overalls, [who] wandered Magnolia County in the 1920s and prophesied that Andalusia would perish if a local virgin murdered her one true love.” The novel’s short length doesn’t affect the potency of its pacing and characterization. Mendenhall depicts the older Cephas as a capable narrator who’s eager to tell his vibrant tale; the protagonist displays seasoned maturity as well as a modest ability to take a look backward at lessons learned. Mendenhall believably portrays the group of boyhood friends, as well as the adults who struggle to mold them into an image of purity and benevolence. Overall, this is a dynamic debut that ably depicts a community of God-fearing personalities struggling to comprehend their emotions, hopes, dreams, and fears.
A briskly paced story of youth in a small, troubled town.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 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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