An absorbing, atmospheric tale of racial reckoning and a blues-infused coming-of-age.
A White high school football star questions his future after a Black father and daughter move to his Arkansas town in this novel.
Johnny Spink is in the Florida Keys, living with an uncle and completing his senior year of high school. Sporting a facial scar, Johnny “had to leave Spinkville last Thanksgiving” after finding “an old, gnawed boot” with “something slimy—bones, mangled, and stinking!” in his mailbox. Then Johnny reveals how he ended up in Florida, going back a few months to that “Ozark town named for my ancestors.” He is the Arkansas town’s high school football hero—with the requisite cheerleader girlfriend—and the son of the rich mayor. Even though it’s 2000 and he is “supposed to like rap, country, alt rock, or head-banging music,” Johnny is deeply drawn to the Delta blues. He is also becoming increasingly educated about his area’s “heart-breaking record of race relations,” with Spinkville having few Black inhabitants given the “hospitality” shown them in the past. Johnny is also feeling the pressures of preordained destiny, exemplified by his coach, indeed the whole town, hoping that he can make a record 1,000-yard gain at an upcoming game. Then Johnny is jolted by the arrival of a Black family: Charles Futrelle, the town’s new poultry plant manager, and his smart, striking daughter, Rae, who joins Johnny’s class. Charles becomes a fishing buddy and mentor and shares his memories of being on the University of Arkansas’ “scout team,” essentially “tackling dummies” and seeing “Black boys getting crippled so white coaches can win!” Johnny realizes that Rae is his first true love, but she is wary of him, more focused on her future at Princeton. As tensions build, Johnny takes a solo road trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to fully delve into his beloved blues. The experience is certainly life-changing, since it is there that Johnny receives that scar and then, upon returning home, makes remarks that anger his community, leading him to start anew in the Sunshine State.
The rather sweet, yearning nature of Gaspeny’s hero is a large part of the novel’s charm. Johnny visibly shakes when he finally gets to kiss elusive dream girl Rae. He also remains undaunted in his reverence for the blues by the tale’s end: “I knew from my music there would always be something lurking along the road out to grab and drag me down. But, with the blues as my rock of faith, I thought I could keep my balance and move on, even if I was only stumbling in flip-flops.” The engrossing story’s discussion of racial matters is naturally more complex. Charles’ recounting of his time as a scout is indeed powerful testimony of this particular Black experience in the South. Johnny is also characteristically sincere in describing his time in Clarksdale: “I had a small sense of what black people had to experience because down in the Delta my white skin made a black man hate me.” Yet the furor created by his remarks, with Johnny noting he was “attacked by the NAACP and defended by Black Muslims” and now often feels a “fugitive’s dread,” feels a bit extreme, although it’s sadly reflective of tragically pervasive racial divides.
An absorbing, atmospheric tale of racial reckoning and a blues-infused coming-of-age.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-60489-332-8
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
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
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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