Richly imagined, fiercely tender, and achingly beautiful.
A reimagining of The Great Gatsby that counters Fitzgerald’s tale of hegemonic power, centering people with marginalized identities.
Seventeen-year-old trans boy Nicholás Caraveo is ready to start his career as a Wall Street analyst, hoping to provide financial security for his beet-farming family in Wisconsin. He’s excited to live near his cousin Daisy in West Egg, where she’s promised to set him up for success, but is shocked to discover that Daisy has lightened her skin and hair to pass as White and hide their shared Latine heritage from her rich, racist promised fiance, Tom. Feeling unmoored in a sea of racism, classism, and toxic masculinity, Nick is drawn to Jay Gatsby, his enigmatic neighbor whose glamorous parties are infamous. Jay, who is also gay and trans, shows Nick the ropes of stealth living and crossing class lines. Despite their undeniable chemistry, Nick agrees to help Jay win over Daisy. The duo teams up with Jay and Daisy’s friend Jordan to give Daisy a dazzling debutante season. The tightly structured plot twists are compelling and satisfying for Gatsby fans, critics, and neophytes alike, avoiding and subverting tropes and giving the main quartet the happy endings they deserve. In this absolutely stunning work, McLemore delivers their signature lyrical prose and rich symbolism. The exquisite slow-burn gay romance is surrounded by Sapphic relationships, lavender marriages, and queer community, giving authentic representation of queer lives in the 1920s.
Richly imagined, fiercely tender, and achingly beautiful. (content warning, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-77493-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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
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