A riveting examination of power and the importance of history.
While trying to save her family, a Black girl tugs on a string that will unravel her small town and the lies that built it.
Casey Whitecroft’s life has been going downhill since the failure of her father’s business and their subsequent decline in social status. Formerly part of the “charmies”—a subset of the rich, primarily White people in their small town of Langston, Georgia—she is now one of the “downstreamers.” Her demoralized father won’t leave the house, her mother is constantly angry, and her sister, a Spelman College junior, is keeping her distance—leaving Casey with few options as she adjusts to her new reality. When they face losing their home, Casey reaches out to attractive co-worker Tanner for help selling her last remaining valuables at his parents’ pawn shop. In the process, she discovers a rust-covered coin she picked up in the local lake may matter more than she thought and may lead to discovering secrets behind Langston’s legend of buried treasure. However, Casey and Tanner aren’t the only ones searching for the treasure—and they are in real danger. The closer they get to the truth, the more they uncover about Langston’s founding. This thrilling coming-of-age story unfolds briskly, keeping readers engaged in the details of the 100-year-old mystery. Through her multiracial cast of characters, Buford examines the impacts of racism and revisionist history through the generations.
A riveting examination of power and the importance of history. (Mystery. 13-18)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781368090254
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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