Featuring 333 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXIX, NO. 5 | 1 MARCH 2021 REVIEWS Talia Hibbert How to write an inclusive romance with heart, soul, and humor p. 14 Also in the issue: Jo Koy, Safia Elhillo, and a guide to the Bridgerton novels FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK | Tom Beer Running the World and Writing About it Chairman HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas # Girls may “run the world,” as Beyoncé so memorably put it, but all too Chief Executive Officer often they do so behind the scenes; women’s accomplishments still don’t get MEG LABORDE KUEHN the attention they deserve in the book world or any other quarter of the media. [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Women’s History Month was established in 1987 to draw more attention to TOM BEER the subject. (It was preceded, from 1982 to 1986, by Women’s History Week— [email protected] Vice President of Marketing enough said.) It’s a worthwhile prod for schools and libraries—and magazines SARAH KALINA like this one—to devote more time to women in history, but the idea that the [email protected] subject deserves just one month of the year is, frankly, inadequate. Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU Fortunately, 2021 is already brimming with excellent books about women’s [email protected] lives, work, and influence. Here are four especially noteworthy titles: Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK Janice P. Nimura’s The Doctors Blackwell: How [email protected] Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Young Readers’ Editor VICKY SMITH Women to Medicine (Norton, Jan. 19) recounts the story of Elizabeth Black- [email protected] well, the first American woman to receive a medical degree (1849) and Young Readers’ Editor later the founder, with sister Emily (also a doctor), of the first hospital LAURA SIMEON [email protected] staffed exclusively by women. This book, which our reviewer calls a “riv- Editor at Large eting dual biography…that reads like a work of historical fiction,” sheds MEGAN LABRISE light on these trailblazers while rendering them as complicated, three- [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie dimensional figures. KAREN SCHECHNER Among the many revelations of last year’s National Book Award–win- [email protected] Senior Indie Editor ning biography of Malcolm X, The Dead Are Arising, were the political DAVID RAPP beliefs and activism of Malcolm’s parents and their role in shaping his [email protected] Indie Editor own. Now Louise Little shares the spotlight with Alberta King and Ber- MYRA FORSBERG dis Baldwin in The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, [email protected] (Flatiron Books, Feb. Associate Manager of Indie Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation KATERINA PAPPAS 2). Author Anna Malaika Tubbs writes, with evident passion, “I am tired [email protected] of Black women being hidden. I am tired of us not being recognized, I am tired of being erased.” In Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER shining a spotlight on these three figures, Tubbs offers what our reviewer calls a “refreshing, well- [email protected] researched contribution to Black women’s history.” Mysteries Editor Black women in music—and the Black women critics who wrote about THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor their work—are the subject of Daphne A. Brooks’ exciting critical study GREGORY McNAMEE Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound Copy Editor (Belknap/Harvard Univ., Feb. 23). Among the artists discussed here: Ma BETSY JUDKINS Rainey, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Designer Houston, Lauryn Hill, and Beyoncé along with writers such as Zora Neale ALEX HEAD Kirkus Editorial Production Editor Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, and jazz historian Rosetta Reitz. This is ROBIN O’DELL heady stuff from a professor of African American studies at Yale—densely [email protected] Kirkus Editorial Associate academic in places yet always animated by sharp insights about Black music Production Editor and Black feminism. Kirkus calls it a “sui generis and essential work on STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS [email protected] Black music culture.” Best of all, there’s a Spotify playlist to accompany it. Website and Software Developer The title of Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s new book is itself pro- PERCY PEREZ [email protected] vocative: When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Advertising Director Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today (Harper/HarperCollins, MONIQUE STENSRUD [email protected] March 23). The case Armstrong (Seinfeldia) makes is persuasive, as she Advertising Associate examines the contributions of Gertrude Berg, creator of a popular radio series–turned–TV comedy TATIANA ARNOLD about a Jewish family in the Bronx; Irna Phillips, who likewise shepherded the soap opera Guiding [email protected] Graphic Designer Light from radio to the small screen; Betty White (yes, that Betty White), who wrote, produced, and KYLA NOVAK starred in her own talk show and comedy series before later fame; and Hazel Scott, a jazz pianist and [email protected] civil rights activist who hosted an evening variety show but was blacklisted during the McCarthy Controller MICHELLE GONZALES era. Our reviewer calls it an “engaging and well-documented recognition of four women’s significant [email protected] impact on the emerging TV medium.” for customer service or subscription questions, Now can we just agree to celebrate women’s history all year long? 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 Ed Chappell UK 2 | 1 march 2021 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction The Kirkus Star is awarded INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 merit, as determined by the ON OUR COVER: TALIA HIBBERT .................................................... 14 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ............................................................................................. 39 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ......................................................... 47 ROMANCE ...........................................................................................49 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 52 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 52 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 54 INTERVIEW: JO KOY ......................................................................... 60 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 92 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 93 EDITOR’S NOTE: PICTURE BOOKS ...................................................94 INTERVIEW: PAULINE VAELUAGA SMITH ...................................100 EDITOR’S NOTE: MIDDLE-GRADE .................................................104 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................143 REVIEWS ............................................................................................143 INTERVIEW: SAFIA ELHILLO ......................................................... 148 indie Andy Weir, author of The Martian, returns INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 158 to space with the unforgettable story of a REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 158 junior high science teacher–turned–reluctant EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 160 astronaut. Read the review on p. 48. SEEN & HEARD ................................................................................. 182 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. APPRECIATIONS: RICHARD RUSSO’S EMPIRE FALLS .................183 You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 1 march 2021 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE ARSONISTS’ CITY Alyan, Hala Houghton Mifflin Harcourt THE ARSONISTS’ CITY by Hala Alyan .............................................. 4 (464 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 9, 2021 EVERYTHING LIKE BEFORE by Kjell Askildsen; 978-0-358-12655-3 trans. by Seán Kinsella ...........................................................................5 LAND OF BIG NUMBERS by Te-Ping Chen ........................................ 9 Alyan’s riveting