An unconventional and original revenge story with a sweet Sapphic romance.
Two Bangladeshi Irish teens reluctantly team up to enact justice on the boy who’s cheating on both of them.
It’s bad enough that Meghna Rahman’s boyfriend, Zak Sardar, has been seeing another girl, but why did it have to be her former best friend, Rani Choudhury? As if Rani doesn’t already have it all: She’s pretty, rich, smart, and accomplished, as Meghna’s parents constantly remind her. Once Meghna and Rani realize that Zak has played them both for fools, however, the two STEM-minded teens devise a revenge plot—they’ll develop an app to “revolutionize relationships” by tracking a suspected cheater’s digital footprint. Zak will be their case study when they present it at the upcoming European Young Scientist Exhibition. Since team members can be given individual awards, Meghna also secretly hopes to impress the judges enough to finally do better than Rani. But working together isn’t easy; their closeness brings repressed vulnerabilities in their relationship to the forefront. Is there something more to the long-standing tension between them? Will teaming up only drive them even further apart—or will exposing their backstabbing boyfriend bring them much, much closer together? The science fair setting provides a platform for the author to thoughtfully examine issues surrounding women of color in science and technology. The shared Bangladeshi background of Meghna, Rani, and Zak also offers room for frank and insightful discussions of cultural familial expectations and generational conflict.
An unconventional and original revenge story with a sweet Sapphic romance. (content note) (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781250842084
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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 worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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