Emotionally frank scenes from a romance and the cutting-room floor.
Friendship, family, and film collide in this queer love triangle.
Life in London is star-studded for 16-year-old Mack, a Black British boy of Nigerian Yoruba descent, son of film director Tejumola Fadayomi. Mack gets asked on the red carpet about his rumored relationship with Finlay, the leading actor in his father’s latest film. The book then moves back in time 18 months to when Mack gets to know Maz, a girl at school. They become fast friends, bonding over food and the shared loss of their mums to cancer. Mack sees this as an opportunity to get close to Maz’s cousin Karim, a popular athlete of Egyptian descent. They start dating but are forced to hide their relationship; K isn’t out to his basketball team. Mack’s poetry, text messages, and intimate conversations give insight into his insecurities, from wearing makeup in public to being the subject of fat jokes in the press: This raw beauty and honesty are the verse novel’s greatest strengths. When Mack and his dad temporarily move to Scotland to shoot a movie, he can only see K on the weekends. Their relationship is further tested when Mack actually begins to fall for Scottish Fin, who is White, trans, and has 2 million social media followers. Once this central tension is set, the novel, that includes diverse cultural influences in the dialogue, builds slowly and ends abruptly. (This review has been updated for factual accuracy.)
Emotionally frank scenes from a romance and the cutting-room floor. (Verse novel. 13-18)Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-315798-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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
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
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