Helen Phillips'
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Featuring 466 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA Books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 14 | 15 JULY 2019 REVIEWS Suspenseful and mysterious, insightful and tender, Helen Phillips’ new thriller, The Need, cements her standing as a writer with a singular sense of story and style. p. 14 from the editor’s desk: Chairman Playing Favorites HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] Photo courtesy John Paraskevas courtesy Photo What is your favorite book? Wait—don’t answer too fast. For a book Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER junkie like me, and most readers of Kirkus Reviews, choosing a favorite [email protected] Vice President of Marketing book is a daunting prospect. We’ve read hundreds, if not thousands, of SARAH KALINA books over the years and received joy from so many various titles; how [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU could anyone select just one? [email protected] I recently joined the Kirkus team as editor-in-chief, and my first Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK official duty was to select a favorite book for my business card. It [email protected] Children’s Editor felt as though I’d never face a harder challenge during my tenure at VICKY SMITH the magazine. [email protected] Young Adult Editor Tom Beer All Kirkus staffers have their favorite books listed on their business LAURA SIMEON [email protected] cards, and it’s the first thing you learn when we introduce ourselves to you—an easy identi- Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE fier and an icebreaker. Fiction editor Laurie Muchnick’s card says Transit of Venus, the 1980 [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie novel by the late, great Shirley Hazzard. Nonfiction editor Eric Liebetrau went forAnother KAREN SCHECHNER [email protected] Roadside Attraction, the inimitable counterculture classic by Tom Robbins. Sue Townsend’s Senior Indie Editor was the pick of Laura Simeon, our Young Adult DAVID RAPP The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ [email protected] Editor. Children’s Editor Vicky Smith selected C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Ward- Indie Editor MYRA FORSBERG robe. Indie editor Karen Schechner got three books for the price of one with Margaret [email protected] Associate Manager of Indie Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. I’ve read the Robbins—it’s wacky and exuberant fun, like all KATERINA PAPPAS [email protected] Robbins’ novels—and the Narnia books were childhood favorites, but I haven’t read Transit Editorial Assistant or , so I have some new additions to my TBR list. You might, too. CHELSEA ENNEN of Venus Adrian Mole [email protected] One of the appealing things about coming on board at Kirkus Reviews is the good for- Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH tune to work with so many people who care deeply about books and never tire of discussing Contributing Editor them. Outgoing editor Claiborne Smith, who is leaving to write his own book and to direct GREGORY McNAMEE Copy Editor the San Antonio Book Festival, has In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi on his business card. In BETSY JUDKINS Designer his nearly seven years at the magazine, Clay has led a crack team of editors and overseen ALEX HEAD dramatic changes. Kirkus covers more books, more thoroughly and thoughtfully, than ever Director of Kirkus Editorial LAUREN BAILEY before. I’m honored to pick up the baton from him and excited about changes still to come. [email protected] Production Editor As for my business card, I agonized for the better part of a week CATHERINE BRESNER over many contenders before deciding on The Line of Beauty, the 2004 [email protected] Website and Software Developer Man Booker Prize–winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. It’s a story PERCY PEREZ [email protected] about being gay in 1980s England and the terrible ravages of AIDS Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD but also about the darkly seductive hold that the upper-class Fedden [email protected] Advertising Associate family holds over Nick Guest, a middle-class outsider who will have TATIANA ARNOLD his illusions about wealth and privilege shattered. Like all of Holling- [email protected] Graphic Designer hurst’s fiction, it’s gorgeously written, full of sentences to luxuriate in. LIANA WALKER [email protected] Even as I write this, however, I am thinking of two or three Controller MICHELLE GONZALES other titles that might have taken its place. That’s the thing about [email protected] books—there are always more to discover and new favorites to for customer service or subscription questions, come. Check back with me again in a few months. please call 1-800-316-9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover photo by opportunities David Barry 2 | 15 july 2019 | 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 ON THE COVER: HELEN PHILLIPS ................................................... 14 merit, as determined by the H.G. PARRY’S UNLIKELY DEBUT ......................................................24 MYSTERY ..............................................................................................35 impartial editors of Kirkus. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY .........................................................42 ROMANCE ...........................................................................................46 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .........................................................49 REVIEWS .............................................................................................49 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 50 BEN FOLDS’ CHEAP LESSONS .........................................................64 THE KING TRANSFORMS LAS VEGAS ............................................. 70 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................83 EDITOR’S NOTE....................................................................................83 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 85 PABLO CARTAYA CREATES A SPARK ............................................ 100 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS .............................................................152 CONTINUING SERIES .......................................................................159 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................161 REVIEWS ............................................................................................161 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................162 DEBBIE RIGAUD GETS ROYALLY ROMANTIC ...............................168 CONTINUING SERIES ...................................................................... 180 In The Only Plane in the Sky, journalist indie Garrett M. Graff delivers wrenching, highly INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................181 personal accounts of 9/11 and its aftermath. REVIEWS ............................................................................................181 Readers who emerge dry-eyed from the text EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 182 should check their pulses: Something is wrong INDIE Q&A: DAVID LEADBEATER .................................................. 188 QUEERIES: NICOLE DENNIS-BENN ..............................................196 with their hearts. Read the review on p. 62. Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ....................................................... 205 they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. Kirkus Reviews FIELD NOTES.....................................................................................206 You can also access the current issue and back issues of on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, APPRECIATIONS: THE GODFATHER, 50 YEARS LATER ............. 207 please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 july 2019 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: A GIRL NAMED ANNA Barber, Lizzy Harlequin MIRA (320 pp.) NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo ........................................................ 5 $15.99 paper | Sep. 3, 2019 978-0-7783-0899-7 NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER by Kevin Barry .......................................6 CHANGE ME by Andrej Blatnik; trans. by Tamara M. Soban ............8 On the 15th anniversary of her sis- ter’s disappearance, a young woman A DANGEROUS MAN by Robert Crais................................................11 launches her own investigation in British author Barber’s U.S.