Review by Kevin Brown

It’s difficult to believe that The Names is Florence Knapp’s debut novel, as she easily handles three storylines, fully developing characters who are similar in each one. The novel begins with Cora going to register her new son’s name, walking with her nine-year-old-daughter Maia. In one of the three plots that follow, Cora listens to her daughter and names her son Bear. In the second, she selects Julian, while in the third, she follows her husband’s demand and names her son after his father, Gordon. Each choice affects the path they all take from that point forward, which Knapp updates every seven years, moving from 1987 to 2022.

In all three storylines, Cora’s husband is physically and emotionally abusive, which means that her decision about the name has an outsized effect. Knapp’s characterization of Cora’s rebellion or acquiescence to her husband, depending on the storyline, is one of the strengths of the novel, as all of her actions are understandable, given how women react in radically different ways in such a horrific situation. The one constant throughout is her devotion to her children, even when that looks radically different in each storyline.

What truly elevates this novel beyond what could be a gimmicky premise is that Knapp doesn’t fall back on easy plotting. If, in one storyline, Cora is able to leave her husband and try to create a different life for her children, the remainder of the story doesn’t guarantee an easy life for her or her children. Instead, each variation has complications and rewards, just as a life does for most people.

While the focus of the novel is on Bear, Julian, or Gordon (his names are the chapter titles for each seven-year increment), Cora is the backbone of the novel, helping to shape Maia and Bear into the people they become. Maia also gets to live a full life, as she questions her sexual orientation and tries to develop meaningful relationships in more or less supportive communities. All of the character’s names matter — Knapp has even provided a type of glossary at the back to show what the names mean and/or why Knapp chose them — as Knapp explores how names do and don’t define us. She also wants to ask how and why pasts shape us. As in life, she doesn’t provide easy answers, but I definitely wanted to spend time with these characters to see how they managed the questions.

---

The Names by Florence Knapp. Pamela Dorman Books, 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Review by Catherine Hayes

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, Emma Knight’s debut novel, is a powerful and compelling observation of womanhood in the early 21st century. Knight explores, a time when the cultural definition of the term womanhood and women’s roles in society largely came into question after the rejection of archaic boundaries and restrictions in the face of second wave feminism in the latter half of the 20th century.

The story follows Penelope “Pen” Winters, a first year international student at the University of Edinburgh who serves as the central protagonist of the novel; Christina Lennox, a family matriarch; and Alice, Pen’s friend and fellow classmate at university. Through each character, Knight explores the silent pressures, demands, and expectations that society places on women through her examination of the institution of marriage and romantic relationships alongside the power dynamics between men and women in these scenarios. Each of the three women undergoes an individual journey of self-discovery and empowerment as they begin to recognize the restrictions and prejudices that have been placed on them simply because of their gender. Yet Knight skillfully brings these three storylines into conversation with one another as each woman plays an active role in the others’ journeys, making for a moving portrayal of female friendship and support.

A truly memorable debut novel that is intelligent and character-driven, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is an important story that sheds light on the suffocating nature of society’s archaic gender prejudices. In the end, Knight emphasizes how each woman has the power and capability to define herself and her life outside the boundaries of these definitions.

---

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight. Pamela Dorman Books, January 2025.

Reviewer bio: Catherine Hayes graduated from Bridgewater State University with her master’s in English and currently lives in Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in Blood & Thunder: Musings of the Art of Medicine, MER Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, NewPages. She can be contacted on Twitter at @Catheri91642131.