A breezy, if slow-paced, teen romance with a healthy dose of self-discovery.
A new high school graduate in Ridgewood, New York, grapples with her future and her relationships.
Eighteen-year-old Jackie has three goals for the summer: spend as much time as possible with best friend Suzy, earn enough to buy a used car for their long-anticipated cross-country road trip, and figure out what she should do next. What she didn’t have planned was being demoted from waitressing to wearing a frog costume at work. Why was she sent to “amphibian jail”? Wilson, the annoyingly handsome new assistant manager at Monte’s Magic Castle, where Jackie helps with kids’ birthday parties, disciplined her for a minor infraction, thus becoming Jackie’s “mortal enemy” whom she takes pride in annoying. As she tries to find herself, Jackie secretly draws on her older twin sisters’ dating experiences to launch a social media account giving break-up advice; it quickly goes viral. But when she learns that her anonymous guidance has led Wilson’s girlfriend, Kenzie, to break up with him, she guiltily tries to help him win her back. Jackie’s summer soon becomes more complicated than she could have imagined. This novel told in Jackie’s first-person perspective is a leisurely enemies-to-lovers story. The light tone is entertaining, and Jackie’s growth is (refreshingly) not dependent on her male love interest; however, the dialogue feels flat and repetitive in places. Jackie and Wilson present white, Kenzie is cued Black, and Suzy is Korean and white.
A breezy, if slow-paced, teen romance with a healthy dose of self-discovery. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780063334069
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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
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