Compelling characters, disappointing denouement.
A streetwise Svengali with questionable motives seduces a group of teen addicts.
When high school junior Greer gets caught shoplifting for the third time, her parents send her to a pricey rehab facility, where she meets Addison, a gorgeous, saintly recovering alcoholic. Their attraction is immediate, but there is one irritating grain of sand in the oyster of their love. His name is Joshua, and he is Addison’s adult sponsor, guru and adoptive father. His background is vague, and his speech is an off-putting mix of pretentious psychobabble and biblical doctrine. Even though Greer distrusts Joshua on sight, she keeps her suspicions to herself since the romance is still new. But then at a bizarre weekend getaway, Joshua plays a series of inappropriate mind games with Addison, Greer and their roommates in order to bring them under his sway. Greer sees through his manipulations and attempts to separate her boyfriend from his spiritual guide with predictably tragic results. The plot strains credulity (it’s hard to believe any reputable youth rehabilitation center would allow a non–staff member so much access to its patients), the pacing is slowed by long-winded therapy-speak and the abrupt ending is unsatisfying. Nevertheless, the characterizations ring true, especially of creepy Joshua and skeptical Greer, who have clearly met their match in each other.
Compelling characters, disappointing denouement. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-29983-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
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
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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