An honest and almost unrelentingly bleak look at an underdiscussed source of trauma.
After enduring harrowing medical treatments, a young woman retreats, seeking isolation.
It’s 1999, and Justine Elisabeth Amos, who graduated high school about a year ago, has left her family and best friend behind and cloistered herself in a cabin in the isolated Wisconsin town of Fish Creek. She goes by her middle name, reads, writes poetry, and works at a local store. Above all, she avoids getting close to people. But when she gets stuck in a snowstorm and 25-year-old Noah, the local sheriff, helps her out, personal complications re-enter her world. Justine is running from the aftermath of medical abuse. Diagnosed with fibular hemimelia and congenital short femur in childhood, she underwent excruciatingly painful surgeries and other procedures. Grant provides a complex look at insidious torture in the name of medical treatment. What ultimately broke Justine’s spirit were the thoughtless, cruel moments during which her consent was continually disregarded. Each time someone—a medical professional or family member—should have supported her but didn’t, this choice was, in their minds, defensible. Justine’s strained relationship with her mother is another realistically complicated source of pain. While her connection with Noah would have benefited from being more fully developed, their romantic attraction rings warm and true. Her struggle to reclaim her identity and ability to connect in the face of aggressive dehumanization is raw yet ultimately hopeful. The main cast reads white.
An honest and almost unrelentingly bleak look at an underdiscussed source of trauma. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616918
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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