A worthwhile celebration of love and second chances from a fresh voice.
It’s the summer before she starts university, and a comic enthusiast from Oxford, England, has plans.
In addition to a vacation with best friend Ritika Ghosh, Elsie Lo is finally going to confess her feelings for Ada Hobbs, her long-distance crush and online fandom friend who has a Black Nigerian mum and a White English dad. Things start to shift when Elsie runs into Joan Tse, the childhood BFF who ghosted her years ago. The two start chatting, rekindle a friendship, and come out to each other as lesbian (Joan) and bi (Elsie). Elsie shares her plan to try to reunite two long-separated women—probably lesbian lovers, one of them Ada’s grandmother. She hopes this grand romantic gesture will impress Ada. Joan is game to join in, and the Cornwall vacation with Ritika turns into a three-person research trip. This ambitious novel has many threads, including an epistolary element and multiple romances, and it doesn’t always come together. The relatively deep backstories—Elsie is also the survivor of an unhealthy relationship—and numerous key characters make for a slow start. Still, Elsie’s search for an older generation of queer women even as she grapples with her own challenging grandmother gives the story momentum and depth, and her journey to finding love, her people, and herself rings tender and true. Both Elsie’s and Joan’s families are from Hong Kong; most major characters are people of color and/or queer.
A worthwhile celebration of love and second chances from a fresh voice. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780063283268
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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
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
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