Congratulations to the 2018 Kirkus Prize Finalists from the Editor’S Desk
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Featuring 239 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA Books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVI, NO. 20 | 15 OCTOBER 2018 REVIEWS Congratulations to the 2018 Kirkus Prize finalists from the editor’s desk: Chairman The 2018 Kirkus Prize Finalists HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY CLAIBORNE SMITH MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN mkuehn@kirkus.com Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter courtesy Photo Congratulations to the writers, illustrators, and translators chosen as finalists Editor-in-Chief CLAIBORNE SMITH for the 2018 Kirkus Prize! This year’s finalists were chosen from 604 young read- csmith@kirkus.com ers’ literature titles, 295 fiction titles, 294 nonfiction titles, and 90 Indie titles. The Vice President of Marketing SARAH KALINA three winning books will be announced in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, Oct. 25. skalina@kirkus.com Winners in the three categories will receive $50,000 each, making the Kirkus Managing/Nonfiction Editor Prize one of the richest annual literary awards in the world. Books become eligible ERIC LIEBETRAU eliebetrau@kirkus.com by receiving a starred review from . Three panels of judges, com- Kirkus Reviews Fiction Editor posed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians, LAURIE MUCHNICK and Kirkus critics, select the Kirkus Prize finalists and winners. Thanks to the lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s Editor judges for their hard work! VICKY SMITH Claiborne Smith vsmith@kirkus.com The finalists for the 2018 Kirkus Prize are: Young Adult Editor LAURA SIMEON FICTION: lsimeon@kirkus.com Staff Writer • Halsey Street by Naima Coster (Little A) MEGAN LABRISE • Florida by Laurena Groff (Riverhead) mlabrise@kirkus.com Vice President of Kirkus Indie • Mourning by Eduardo Halfon (Bellevue Literary Press) KAREN SCHECHNER • Severance by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) kschechner@kirkus.com • Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires Senior Indie Editor DAVID RAPP (37 Ink/Atria) drapp@kirkus.com • Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams (Riverhead) Indie Editor MYRA FORSBERG The judges for the 2018 Kirkus Prize in Fiction are: award-winning author Sandra Cisneros; editor, mforsberg@kirkus.com writer, and Kirkus critic Jessica Jernigan; and Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District, a pop-up Indie Editorial Assistant bookstore in the Washington, D.C., area. KATERINA PAPPAS kpappas@kirkus.com NONFICTION: Editorial Assistant CHELSEA ENNEN • The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder (Tim Duggan Books/ cennen@kirkus.com Crown) Mysteries Editor • Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (Little, THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor Brown) GREGORY McNAMEE • American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Copy Editor Bauer (Penguin Press) BETSY JUDKINS • Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (Scribner) Designer ALEX HEAD • Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket) Director of Kirkus Editorial • Heartland: A Daughter of the Working Class Reconciles an American Divide by Sarah Smarsh LAUREN BAILEY (Scribner) lbailey@kirkus.com Production Editor The judges for the 2018 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction are: award-winning author Carina Chocano; author CATHERINE BRESNER and Kirkus critic Joseph Barbato; and book buyer for all eight of Copperfield’s Books’ stores in San Fran- cbresner@kirkus.com cisco’s North Bay, Sheryl Cotleur. Creative Lead ARDEN PIACENZA apiacenza@kirkus.com YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE: Website and Software Developer Picture Books: PERCY PEREZ • Crown by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by James C. Gordon (Bolden/Agate) pperez@kirkus.com Advertising Director • Dreamers by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter/Holiday House) MONIQUE STENSRUD Middle Grade: mstensrud@kirkus.com Controller • Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (Candlewick) MICHELLE GONZALES • Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin) mgonzales@kirkus.com Young Adult: for customer service or subscription questions, • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen) please call 1-800-316-9361 • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt/Macmillan) The judges for the 2018 Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature are: New York Times–bestselling author of the Legend trilogy and the Young Elites trilogy, Marie Lu; writer and Kirkus critic J. Alejandro Mazariegos; and Youth Services Supervisor at the main branch of the Kansas City Public Library, Kim berly A. Patton. Cover design by Arden Piacenza 2 | 15 october 2018 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 The Kirkus Star is awarded REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 EDWARD CAREY & MADAME TUSSAUD ......................................... 14 merit, as determined by the THE TIMES ARE SURREAL; SO IS THIS BOOK ...............................24 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ..............................................................................................33 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 39 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 41 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 41 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................42 KIESE LAYMON’S DYNAMIC NEW MEMOIR...................................56 JANE LEAVY & THE BIG FELLA ......................................................... 62 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 74 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 74 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 76 MATT PHELAN’S ARTHURIAN EXPLOITS ...................................... 92 CONTINUING SERIES ........................................................................95 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 97 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 97 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................98 MARY MCCOY WRESTLES WITH ANCIENT HISTORY .................102 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................106 indie Daisy Johnson, born in 1990, just became INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................107 the youngest person ever shortlisted for REVIEWS ............................................................................................107 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 108 the Man Booker Prize with this modern INDIE Q&A: ADAM CROFT .............................................................. 118 retelling of Oedipus Rex. Read the review QUEERIES: GENGOROH TAGAME.................................................. 126 on p. 17. INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ........................................................133 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as they are released on kirkus.com even before they are published in the magazine. FIELD NOTES......................................................................................134 — You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our APPRECIATIONS: SHIRLEY JACKSON’S “THE LOTTERY” website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, TURNS 70 ...........................................................................................135 please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing customers@kirkusreviews.com. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 october 2018 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE COMING STORM Alpert, Mark St. Martin’s Press (336 pp.) THE WINTER OF THE WITCH by Katherine Arden ............................5 $27.99 | Jan. 8, 2019 978-1-250-06542-1 THE WEIGHT OF A PIANO by Chris Cander ......................................7 AS LONG AS WE BOTH SHALL LIVE by JoAnn Chaney ...................8 In the year 2023, post-apocalyp- tic New York has become a war zone THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING as genetically altered federal agents by Jerome Charyn ..................................................................................8 advance a cruel and oppressive right- wing agenda. THE PARAGON HOTEL by Lyndsay Faye ........................................... 9 Unfortunately for the subjects of LATE IN THE DAY by Tessa Hadley .....................................................15 this mad secret experiment, which transforms selected officers from the Federal Service Unit into invincible hulks, the treat- EVERYTHING UNDER by Daisy Johnson ...........................................17 ment results in shocking physical and psychological effects. One scrambled soul has his “brain burst open and all the memories THE CURRENT by Tim Johnston.........................................................17