Adrienne Martini Reviews The Hermit Next Door by Kevin Hearne
The Hermit Next Door, Kevin Hearne (Subterranean Press 978-1-64524-195-9, $40.00, 96pp, hc) June 2024. Cover by Dominic Harmon.
The Hermit Next Door, a novella by Kevin Hearne, is a lighthearted romp about grief. Really. Winnie Mae is newly widowed and decides to move from Tennessee to ex-urban Oregon. She finds a house that meets her needs: The neighborhood is quiet enough so that she can continue teaching her online yoga classes. There’s a lovely stream that runs along the back of the property, which reminds her of her late husband. Her teenage son, Pax, is against the move and struggles to fit in at his new high school. Then he meets the hermit next door…
Hearne has built a tightly plotted story that takes some interesting, if easily negotiated, turns. The Hermit Next Door feels like a golden-age juvenile that’s been updated for the 2020s in all of the best ways while maintaining the Golden Age sense of wonder.
Adrienne Martini has been reading or writing about science fiction for decades and has had two non-fiction, non-genre books published by Simon and Schuster. She lives in Upstate New York with one husband, two kids, and one corgi. She also runs a lot.
This review and more like it in the July 2024 issue of Locus.
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