Poignant and insightful.
A high schooler’s nondisabled persona threatens to unravel when she’s suspended from school.
After ableism destroyed a childhood friendship, Brynn Kwan has ensured that nobody at Pineland Prep knows she has Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, a degenerative genetic disorder that causes frequent joint dislocations. She’s perfected her Pretend Brynn persona, hiding her pain and fatigue. Brynn’s even ghosted her (now-ex) boyfriend, Oliver De Luca, rather than reveal an upcoming surgery. But when she’s unjustly suspended and banned from senior-year activities (including serving as class president) after intervening in a fight, she feels lost without her busy social facade. Worse, a life skills class project forces her and Oliver to be hypothetical future roommates, juggling budgets and careers. Brynn’s future, given her uncertain prognosis, is unpredictable. Attending college—or even finishing high school—seems pointless when EDS has destroyed her dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. But as her feelings for Oliver resurface, pretense and reality blur. Could Oliver love the real Brynn? Mangle, who has EDS herself, vividly portrays the unpredictability of chronic illness in a disorienting post-Covid world where illness is no longer normalized. Wry internal banter with various body parts leavens Brynn’s anxious, discouraged narration. Though some secondary characters feel two-dimensional, the tension between Brynn and her overprotective younger sister is uncomfortably realistic, and Brynn’s bond with her Korean American dad, who also has EDS, is heartwarming (Brynn’s mom is white). Oliver reads white; there’s ethnic and racial diversity among secondary characters.
Poignant and insightful. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781665937634
Page Count: 352
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
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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