Featuring 372 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA Books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 4 | 15 FEBRUARY 2019 REVIEWS Madhuri Vijay’s vivid debut novel, The Far Field, moves from Bangalore to a Himalayan village as Shalini, haunted by memories of her restless mother, recounts her painful accumulation of wisdom. Vijay’s goal was to write an unsafe book— something that takes “readers to places that are not the usual places,” she tells us. p. 14 from the editor’s desk: Chairman Excellent February Books HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY CLAIBORNE SMITH MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter courtesy Photo Editor-in-Chief Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest CLAIBORNE SMITH Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham (Feb. 5): “In this vivid and [email protected] Vice President of Marketing exhaustive account, Higginbotham…masterfully re-creates the emo- SARAH KALINA [email protected] tions, intrigue, and denials and disbelief of Communist Party officials, Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU workers, engineers, and others at every stage. He takes readers directly [email protected] Fiction Editor to the scene: the radioactive blaze, the delayed evacuation of residents LAURIE MUCHNICK from the apartment buildings in ‘workers’ paradise’ Pripyat, the treat- [email protected] Children’s Editor ment of the injured, and the subsequent investigation and ‘show trial’ VICKY SMITH [email protected] of scapegoats in a tragedy caused by both reactor failings and operator Young Adult Editor Claiborne Smith LAURA SIMEON errors….Written with authority, this superb book reads like a classic [email protected] Staff Writer disaster story and reveals a Soviet empire on the brink.” MEGAN LABRISE [email protected] Leading Men by Christopher Castellani (Feb. 12): “To the spate of Vice President of Kirkus Indie KAREN SCHECHNER novels investigating the lives of famous artists and their relationships [email protected] Senior Indie Editor with the people who loved them most, add this intriguing take on Ten- DAVID RAPP nessee Williams and his lover of 15 years, Frank Merlo. Nicknamed [email protected] Indie Editor the Horse by Williams for his stocky build, Merlo was a man from a MYRA FORSBERG [email protected] working-class Italian family in New Jersey who rose to elite echelons of Indie Editorial Assistant KATERINA PAPPAS society through his relationship with Williams, becoming friends with, [email protected] Editorial Assistant among others, Anna Magnani and Truman Capote (whom neither he CHELSEA ENNEN nor Williams cherished). Castellani’s Merlo, with a heart that’s ‘big and [email protected] Mysteries Editor simple and practical,’ is the focus here….Humane, witty, and bold, this THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor novel imagines the life of a loving but tortured couple.” GREGORY McNAMEE Copy Editor The Moon Within by Aida Salazar (Feb. 26): “A worthy successor to Are You There God? It’s BETSY JUDKINS Designer Me, Margaret set in present-day Oakland. Eleven-year-old Celi, mixed black–Puerto Rican– ALEX HEAD Mexican, dreads the imminent arrival of her period, less because of the menstruation itself Director of Kirkus Editorial LAUREN BAILEY and more because her mother insists that Celi have a ‘moon ceremony,’ in which the mem- [email protected] Production Editor bers of her mother’s ‘women’s circle’ will mark the transition from childhood to woman- CATHERINE BRESNER hood….An authentically middle school voice and diverse Latinx cast make this book a [email protected] Creative Lead ARDEN PIACENZA standout.” (Verse fiction. -8 12) [email protected] Website and Software Developer Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Rage and Wrongful Conviction in America by Kyle Swen- PERCY PEREZ [email protected] son (Feb. 12): “In his debut book, an expansion of his popular “Cleveland Scene” feature, Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD Washington Post journalist Swenson weaves together the dramatic details of a 1975 incident [email protected] in Cleveland in which three black men were falsely accused and convicted of the murder Controller MICHELLE GONZALES of Harry Franks, a white man, outside of a convenience store. In this sharply written, emo- [email protected] for customer service tionally resonant rendering, the author makes crystal-clear the heartbreaking realities of or subscription questions, please call 1 800 316 9361 wrongful imprisonment, race, and the many flaws of the American criminal justice system.” - - - 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 Manvi Rao 2 | 15 february 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: MADHURI VIJAY ................................................... 14 merit, as determined by the YANGSZE CHOO’S NEW DETECTIVE/GHOST STORY....................24 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ..............................................................................................35 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY .........................................................40 ROMANCE ...........................................................................................44 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 47 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 47 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................48 ANDREW S. CURRAN REVIVES DIDEROT ......................................62 SOPHIA SHALMIYEV’S PROVOCATIVE MEMOIR ...........................68 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 87 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 87 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................88 SAYANTANI DASGUPTA’S WITTY MIDDLE-GRADE SERIES .......104 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................127 CONTINUING SERIES ...................................................................... 135 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 140 REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 140 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 142 BRIAN CONAGHAN’S UNFLINCHING NEW NOVEL .................. 146 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................154 Emily Bazelon delivers a vitally important indie new entry in the continued heated debates INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................155 about criminal justice. Read the review on REVIEWS ............................................................................................155 p. 49. EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 156 INDIE Q&A: ELLE KENNEDY ............................................................162 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as QUEERIES: HUGH RYAN ..................................................................170 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 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ........................................................177 website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, FIELD NOTES..................................................................................... 178 please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing [email protected]. APPRECIATIONS: REMEMBERING GEORGES SIMENON ............179 | kirkus.com | contents | 15 february 2019 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: ROAR Ahern, Cecelia Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) THE GUEST BOOK by Sarah Blake ......................................................7 $26.00 | Apr. 16, 2019 978-1-5387-3096-6 EEG by Daša Drndić; trans. by Celia Hawkesworth .........................10 WUNDERLAND by Jennifer Cody Epstein .........................................12 As they near 60, smart, savvy women become increasingly invisible in our age- LITTLE DARLINGS by Melanie Golding ............................................16 ist society. Who can diagnose, much less fix, maladies of a sociocultural nature? PRINCESS BARI by Hwang Sok-Yong; Acutely attuned to the subtle sex- trans. by Sora Kim-Russell ...................................................................18 ism, ageism, racism, and every other -ism THROW ME TO THE WOLVES by Patrick McGuinness