Brilliant and multilayered; an absolute must-read.
The personal price of abortion bans.
Sixteen-year-old Ivy lives in Paris, Texas, an insular town with a fake Eiffel Tower and a culture of megachurches. She proudly works as an assistant manager at Euwing’s Drugs; she’s also a diligent student with plans for college who one day hopes to see the world. But when she gets pregnant, Ivy knows it could spell the end of her ambitions. People in her town are vitriolically antiabortion—and abortion in Texas is illegal after six weeks. She tells her boyfriend, Lorenzo, and he and Ivy’s mother organize a plan to drive to Oregon, where Ivy’s indomitable grandmother lives, to get an abortion. What ensues is both a poignant road trip through towns named after world cities so Ivy can, after a fashion, experience seeing the world and a searing reflection on the contrasting states of affairs around abortion access and community attitudes. Over the course of the trio’s journey, Ivy learns of other people’s abortion stories—and that one in four women gets one. This extraordinary story scrutinizes, through Ivy’s first-person, present-tense narrative, some of the historical and contemporary efforts to control women and the ways women have either been accessories to or have rebelled against them. The book offers a powerful argument for choice, bolstered by an exploration of women’s oppression and strength, told through a personal lens: It’s an individual story through which many readers will find universal commonalities. Main characters read white.
Brilliant and multilayered; an absolute must-read. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593485545
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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