The novel starts with a bang in an interesting setting, but it quickly fizzles into melodrama.
Kate Thompson seeks revenge at any cost after her father is killed by a gang of robbers who believe he had information about a mythical gold mine.
Disguised as a boy, Kate quickly tracks a wounded gang member into town, where she interrogates him, confirms he is part of the notoriously vicious Rose Riders gang who now have her father’s gold mine maps, and summarily executes him. She then heads toward the nearby town of Wickenburg looking for Abe, the man her father always told her to find if he died. Though Abe turns out to have died years earlier, his sons were told to adopt any Thompson that ever arrives looking for him. Jesse and Will ask the still-disguised Kate to stay on their ranch, but she’s too focused on tracking the Rose Riders to take them up on their offer. Because they’re struggling financially, the brothers agree to accompany her in exchange for any gold that they discover. The journey immediately seems doomed due to Kate’s blinding rage, which luckily is no obstacle to love, as a predictable romance develops between Kate and Jesse, once he discovers she’s a girl. And the predictability continues as clichéd Wild West characters pop in and out of the story so frequently that even their deaths leave little emotional impact.
The novel starts with a bang in an interesting setting, but it quickly fizzles into melodrama. (Historical romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-46638-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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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