Despite a promising hook and some interesting core ingredients, this book fails to deliver on its full potential.
Seventeen-year-old Chanda keeps seeing a zebra—her sacred totem that represents her kinship to others who share it.
This, combined with her frequent lapses in memory, make her parents consider institutionalization in a hospital. Chanda turns to an aunt who advises her to go back to her family’s village to get the answers and cure she needs. The journey proves more taxing than Chanda anticipated, and going from her privileged urban life in Harare, Zimbabwe, to rural Gumindoga is more than Chanda feels she can bear; she wants to leave almost immediately. However, it seems destiny has plans for her, and she is again reminded of how little she can control when she tries to leave. Chanda's story touches on the duality of and relationship between modern Western vs. holistic traditional approaches and attitudes to mental health and medical conditions. The novel would have benefited from a better developed plot and characters whose relationships exhibited greater depth, both of which would have made the conclusion feel more climactic. The uneven pacing results in insufficient attention being paid to scenes that bear relevance to Chanda’s problems. The central themes—that we are more connected than we may realize and that unlearned history is bound to repeat itself—do not feel fully fleshed out. Chanda and her family are Shona.
Despite a promising hook and some interesting core ingredients, this book fails to deliver on its full potential. (Fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-988449-75-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Mawenzi House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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