Myers (The Keeping Room, 1997, etc.) returns to the red-dirt section of Oklahoma, exploring the line between inspiration and madness. Clare, who plans to attend college, and Liz, who is passionate about dance, have never seen a boy like Ethan Bennington in Collins Creek, Oklahoma. Most of the boys in their 1960s oil company camp are interested in hot cars and their future jobs in the oil fields. Newcomer Ethan, handsome and sensitive, plays the piano beautifully and is easy to talk to. While Liz is away for the summer, Clare grows close to Ethan. She can’t understand why Ethan’s parents frown on his music until he tells her that he’s been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and has spent time in a mental hospital for confessing that he hears the voice of and sees a 19th-century composer, Friedrich, who knew Brahms, died young, and wants his own composition, Forest Concerto, written down. When Liz returns and school starts, Clare keeps the details of Ethan’s past from her; Liz discovers Ethan’s secret in Clare’s diary and, feeling shut out by her best friend for the first time since kindergarten, spreads the information around their small school. With strong characterizations, believable dialogue, a fresh setting, and a complex web of relationships, Myers writes provocatively about the intriguing subject of genius and creativity. Readers will only wish the discussion, curtailed abruptly when Ethan heroically attempts to save a retarded girl in a fire, could have been brought to a more prosaic, less explosive, ending. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8027-8670-7
Page Count: 153
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
