A creatively told tale of emotional and personal growth.
A teenage artist struggles to balance new circumstances with old comforts in Woodburn’s YA novel.
High school sophomore Emma Mason, a talented artist, gets a scholarship to Wabash Academy in Indiana. She’s spent all her life in Buenaventura, California, and has great relationships with her parents; her best friend, Céline, whom she’s known since she was little; and a new boyfriend, Hunter Murray. After starting her junior year at Wabash, she experiences serious growing pains and wonders if her connection to faraway Hunter, which feels “strained and off-kilter,” and to Céline will survive the distance. When a shocking event occurs during Emma’s winter break in Buenaventura, the sensitive painter realizes that she must decide where her loyalties lie. The Before in the title seems to imply that the novel will include accounts of before Emma became Hunter’s girlfriend, but only one chapter, explaining their meet-cute, qualifies as such; it actually refers to Emma’s mindset regarding their relationship before the pivotal event. Woodburn helpfully clarifies this early on, alternating chapters between the Before and After timelines, with the life-altering event as the firm nexus. The After chapters progress chronologically forward while the Before chapters progress in reverse, ending when Emma and Hunter began dating. It’s certainly a clever conceit, and it adds a layer of complexity to the proceedings; however, it also adds a layer of fragmentation that jarringly ricochets the reader between time periods. In this charged tale of teenage romance, friendship, and identity formation, though, Emma’s tone of self-reflection and warm-heartedness keeps everything on track.
A creatively told tale of emotional and personal growth.Pub Date: May 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781958109489
Page Count: 333
Publisher: Owl Hollow Press
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A great read offering entertainment, encouragement, and plenty to reflect upon.
A gay teen contends with time travel—and homophobia through the decades.
All Cuban American Luis wants is to be prom king with his boyfriend, but tiny upstate New York boarding school Antic Springs Academy, with its strict, Christian code of conduct, won’t even let them hold hands in public. After a disastrous prom committee meeting at which his attempt to make the event welcoming of queer couples is rejected by the principal, Luis gets quite literally knocked into the past—specifically, ASA in the year 1985. There he meets Chaz, a Black student who attended the school at the same time as Luis’ parents and who died under mysterious circumstances after being bullied for his sexuality. Luis now faces a choice between changing the past to help Chaz and preserving his own future existence. Fortunately, he has Ms. Silverthorn, a Black English teacher and beloved mentor, who offers him support in both timelines. The narrative explores the impacts of homophobia and being closeted, remaining optimistic without shying away from the more brutal aspects. Luis is a multifaceted character with an engaging voice whose flaws are confronted and examined throughout. The solid pacing and pleasant, fluid prose make this a page-turner. Luis’ boyfriend is cued as Chinese American, and his best friend is nonbinary; there is some diversity in ethnicity and sexuality in background characters, although the school is predominantly White.
A great read offering entertainment, encouragement, and plenty to reflect upon. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0710-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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