Kind

It’s a cross between a satire and a thriller that pivots around – before, during and after - that strange silent period of the first lockdown in March 2020. The title echoes the fleeting surge of national collective goodwill during the shock shutdown when our then-PM urged us to be “kind.” And most of us tried. But then, as Johnson makes clear, the resilience of kindness can erode when it collides with less altruistic instincts. That transition, the tipping over from good to bad, drives Kind’s intrigue, full of surprises to the very end. What a tangled web Johnson weaves. . . . Kind ends in 2023, in the cruel world we now have to deal with. After a startling twist, it turns out that Johnson’s book is deeper than a satire, or a thriller, but something much more tender – and reflective about what we have lost.

Linda Herrick, Kete

A Kiwi pandemic novel with elements of a pacy thriller, Stephanie Johnson’s Kind is also a wry and clear-eyed commentary on New Zealand, where we are and where we’re headed. There are many plot strands – each richly peopled and filled with nail-biting jeopardy – and multiple perspectives. This satisfying complexity means the novel is way more than an exploration of lockdown-related claustrophobia and navel-gazing. There is a bit of that – but just enough. . . . Johnson, the author of over 20 works of fiction and non-fiction, offers a master class in storytelling in the way she seamlessly links these plot threads and characters and provides a gratifying conclusion. The novel is a twisty, riveting ride that also provides plenty of food for thought: how far is New Zealand prepared to go in selling its soul by offering refuge to the ranks of the paranoid rich, and the insidiousness of class divisions in a society that prides itself on “classlessness”? Johnson wrestles, too, with the limits of kindness. Lockdown blues are the least of it.

Brigid Feehan, NZ Listener

The book is a virtual theme park of twisting turning rides, some terrifying, some hilarious, some a house of mirrors, and all of them page-turning. With at least five storylines and, I think, 11 different points of view, all with their own intricate tensions and cliff-hangers, it’s a spectacular feat of plotting. . . . All of the storylines are a thrilling ride, and their ultimate collision produces the kind of ending that leaves a reader grinning, putting down the book with a satisfied sigh, and wanting another one.

Anna Knox, readingroom, Newsroom

There will no doubt be more novels dealing with the pandemic and what we did in the lockdown . . . but few will be as witty or thought-provoking, thanks to Johnson's trademark combination of sardonic observation with humane authorial compassion. Truly!

Paul Little, North & South