Heavy stuff, as the title implies, and absolutely worthwhile.
A meditation on grief, guilt, and survival; King’s most challenging work to date.
Stanzi and her friends are damaged high school seniors in Pennsylvania, struggling to forge connections with one another and the often hostile world beyond. Gustav is building an invisible helicopter in his backyard. China’s mother is “the neighborhood dominatrix.” And Lansdale is a compulsive liar. School life is grim, dominated by safety drills, standardized tests, and an erratically high volume of bomb threats. Amid the disruption, there is also a naked man living in a bush who, in a series of surreal exchanges, sets each of the teens in motion. The intricately constructed narrative is deeply disorienting, not only because the narrators are all openly unreliable, but because the events they describe occupy a gray area bounded by personality quirks, mental illness, and magical realism. Coupled with repeated references to such real-life events as the Newtown and Columbine shootings, as well as the fictional violence inflicted on the main characters, the novel is, at times, a grueling march through a gallery of traumas. But as with Please Ignore Vera Dietz (2010), King’s choices are neither gratuitous nor exploitative; when crucial details start falling into place around the halfway point, readers who hang in that far are rewarded with the self-actualization of finely wrought characters.
Heavy stuff, as the title implies, and absolutely worthwhile. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-33409-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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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