Featuring 340 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXIX, NO. 8 | 15 APRIL 2021 REVIEWS SPECIAL Indie ISSUE Plus interviews with: Celebrating the spark & spirit of Kaitlyn Greenidge, Justine Bateman, independently published books Laekan Zea Kemp, and Jay Hosler With a sampler of great Indie writing and conversations with the authors FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK | Karen Schechner Chairman Direct Access Reading HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN # When writing about independent publishing, I usually trot out the Chief Executive Officer stats. The point being: Read more Indie! Millions of people already do. MEG LABORDE KUEHN For this year’s Indie Issue, instead of another rundown of Bowker’s lat- [email protected] Editor-in-Chief est figures, we wanted to offer direct access to Indieland’s finest. Look TOM BEER for excerpts in various genres, like a scene from Margaret F. Chen’s eerie [email protected] Vice President of Marketing short story collection, Suburban Gothic, and in-depth conversations with SARAH KALINA several authors, including Esther Amini, who talks about Concealed, her [email protected] memoir of growing up as a Jewish Iranian immigrant. And, since it’s been Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU one of our worst, most isolating, stressful years, we checked in with Indie [email protected] authors; here’s how they coped with 2020-2021. Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK During the lockdown, author and beekeeper J.H. Ramsay joined an [email protected] online network of writers and artists, and he completed his SF debut, Young Readers’ Editor VICKY SMITH Predator Moons. “I have a friend in Sweden who writes screenplays and scripts for audio-drama [email protected] podcasts and another friend in Scotland who finished and published her first novel, just like Young Readers’ Editor me,” he says. “Comparing notes about our progress made me feel like we were all in a bubble LAURA SIMEON together, even if we were separated by oceans.” [email protected] Editor at Large Carole Hailey finished The Book of Jem last summer while living on the coast of Wales. MEGAN LABRISE The first U.K. lockdown forced her to focus, she says. It also influenced her dystopian satire, [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie which was already pretty dark. “There is no doubt that the relentlessly bleak pandemic news KAREN SCHECHNER affected my writing. There was a noticeable heightening of the isolation and dread infusing [email protected] Senior Indie Editor the novel.” DAVID RAPP Michael A. Morea noticed a change in his work, too. Writing his fantasy The Ashen Proph­ [email protected] Indie Editor ecy while social distancing led him to recast the novel’s storylines. He explains, “It made me MYRA FORSBERG empathize with my own characters’ struggles more—such as the pain of loss and the yearning [email protected] for better days—and helped me articulate those arcs more clearly.” Associate Manager of Indie KATERINA PAPPAS In David M. Margolis’ collection of tragicomic short stories, Tales of Unkosher Souls, [email protected] Covid’s effects were wry and overt: “I wrote a story about Lady Macbeth washing Covid off Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER her hands while singing the birthday song twice and an even shorter [email protected] piece about a talking raven doubling as the angel of death, telling me Mysteries Editor that I needed to get my affairs in order.” THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor When Julie Gray began working on The True Adventures of Gidon GREGORY McNAMEE —about a Holocaust survivor living in Israel—long before the Lev Copy Editor pandemic, she already faced considerable angst. “Gidon was charm- BETSY JUDKINS ing and spritely, but he was in his mid-80s, and as one of the last Designer living Holocaust survivors, that made his memories even more pre- ALEX HEAD Kirkus Editorial Production Editor cious—and precarious,” says Gray. “Covid-19 was taking the lives ROBIN O’DELL of thousands every day, especially the elderly. I was so worried that [email protected] Kirkus Editorial Associate Gidon might not live to hold his book in his hands. So many writers Production Editor were thrown by the terrible events of 2020.…I’m just so glad that STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS [email protected] Gidon made it through and is proud of the book.” Website and Software Developer Raea Gragg was studying animation and screenwriting at Loyola PERCY PEREZ Marymount University School of Film and Television in LA when in- [email protected] Advertising Director person school was canceled. She saw it as a chance to finish Mup, her MONIQUE STENSRUD graphic novel and senior thesis project. “It was tricky to make the transition from my campus [email protected] Advertising Associate computer animation lab to setting up my own work studio from home. But in the end, the TATIANA ARNOLD pandemic sped up my production. It was both a setback and a gift—I may not have had much [email protected] Graphic Designer of a senior year, but I was able to finishMup , and I’m proud of that.” KYLA NOVAK Several authors plan to maintain the connections and habits acquired during the past year. [email protected] Ramsay is already working on his next book. He says, “my sequel to is under- Controller Predator Moons MICHELLE GONZALES way, and I should have it done within the year.” [email protected] for customer service or subscription questions, Karen Schechner is the vice president of Kirkus Indie. 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 design by opportunities Kyla Novak 2 | 15 april 2021 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents indie issue special features young adult EXCERPTS FROM INDIELAND ............................................................4 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .......................................................146 INTERVIEW: ESTHER AMINI ..............................................................6 REVIEWS ...........................................................................................146 INDIE MEMOIRS ...................................................................................8 INTERVIEW: LAEKAN ZEA KEMP ...................................................152 INDIE FANTASIES................................................................................. 9 indie INTERVIEW: MARGARET F. CHEN .................................................. 10 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................163 INTERVIEW: DONNY JACKSON .......................................................12 REVIEWS ............................................................................................163 fiction INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ........................................................185 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 14 SEEN & HEARD .................................................................................186 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 14 APPRECIATIONS: HATESHIP, FRIENDSHIP, COURTSHIP, EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 16 LOVESHIP, MARRIAGE .................................................................... 187 INTERVIEW: KAITLTYN GREENIDGE ............................................. 24 MYSTERY ............................................................................................. 47 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ..........................................................55 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 56 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 58 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 58 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................60 INTERVIEW: JUSTINE BATEMAN ....................................................66 children’s Tahereh Mafi’s latest offers a searing portrait of INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 92 Shadi, a first-generation Iranian American girl who is navigating family and friendship stresses REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 93 plus the weight of Islamophobia in 2003 America. EDITOR’S NOTE (PICTURE BOOKS) .................................................94 Read the review on p. 154. INTERVIEW: JAY HOSLER............................................................... 100 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre­publication reviews as EDITOR’S NOTE (MIDDLE-GRADE) ............................................... 104 they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS .............................................................139 website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, please contact customer care to set