by Faith Gardner ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 24, 2022
An intelligent, expansive story of a family surviving the increasingly common unthinkable.
A random shooting changes the trajectories of three women’s lives in this contemporary novel set in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Betty is a recent high school graduate from a working-class family who is engaged in an unpaid internship. One day, she, her mom, and her older sister, Joy, make an uncharacteristic stop at the mall and encounter the most harrowing experience of their lives. Betty’s mother and sister are trapped, hiding in a clothing store, while Betty, who was next door eating a cupcake, runs toward them when she hears shots. Joy witnesses the shooter kill himself right in front of her. The months that follow are divided into three parts as Joy struggles with agoraphobia and substance use disorder, their mother channels her feelings into gun control activism, and Betty tries to hold everyone together even as her long-absent father disappoints her all over again. Betty’s incisive and sarcastic yet vulnerable narrative voice captures this exploration of trauma realistically, imbuing it with humor and authentic desperation and grief. A relationship she strikes up with Michael, the shooter’s half brother, feels a bit too obviously a plot device in places, but their warm, witty exchanges strike just the right chord, and readers will root for them to become more than friends. Most main characters are White; biracial Michael’s father is Indian American. Both Betty and Michael are pansexual.
An intelligent, expansive story of a family surviving the increasingly common unthinkable. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-302235-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2013
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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SEEN & HEARD
by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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