An important issue that is unfortunately unartfully explored.
Sixteen-year-old Marcelle is attending her support group, avoiding her user friends, and trying to find freedom from her addiction, but when her best friend disappears, everything starts falling apart.
Marcelle’s alcohol use disorder is a way for her to chase away the insecurity and loneliness she feels, but instead of leaving her happy, her binge drinking is slowly killing her. After a wild, drunken ride on her bicycle leaves her broken and bruised, she begins attending a local support group run by other teens looking to get clean. But as she tries to break free from the drinking, she watches her best friend, Hannah, descend into a life of pornographic modeling and dealing cocaine. Marcelle must decide whether or not to tell concerned adults in their lives everything she knows about what Hannah is doing. While the struggles with substance abuse are raw and complicated, the plot wanders aimlessly in places, causing the narrative to lose its energy and drive. Further Marcelle’s continued self-absorption is at best claustrophobic and at worst reprehensible, as it puts her friend’s life at risk. The large cast is often unwieldy, causing further confusion. The primary characters are predominantly white; Marcelle's boyfriend is Chinese, Indian, and white, and some of the support group members’ names suggest diversity.
An important issue that is unfortunately unartfully explored. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-236052-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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
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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