An insightful, entertaining exploration of the impact of a suicide that may leave its audience uncertain about the sincerity...
Avery and Nora were best friends, drawn together by the fact that they were both adopted. After Nora dies, Avery feels partially responsible.
The girls grew apart as Avery became a cheerleader and acquired a shell of popularity, willingly accepting superficiality in herself and her friends for appearances’ sake. Nora, a true individual who’s briefly though sympathetically sketched, had begun a challenging senior project, aided by her gently supportive friend, Brody: to locate her birth mother. The painful outcome of her search turns out to be too much of an emotional burden; right after passing on a journal of the quest to Avery—along with obvious clues to her desperate emotional state that Avery ignores—Nora kills herself. Avery, focused on how it might positively affect her application to Duke University, decides she’ll honor Nora’s memory by searching for her own birth mother. Avery has her eye on the bottom line, and she facilely, fluently lies to people around her if it advances her cause. This ultimately undermines her climactic revelation of the error of her ways. More effective is her wry, often sarcastic voice, which is sometimes hilarious, as when she describes her boyfriend’s bumbling sexual advances: “[I]t felt like he was trying to start a fire Boy Scout style.”
An insightful, entertaining exploration of the impact of a suicide that may leave its audience uncertain about the sincerity of the protagonist. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4022-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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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