An edgy, intriguing debut novel of suspense, suspicion, and surprise
When she starts seeing the ghost of her sister’s recently drowned friend, troubled 16-year-old Arielle worries she may be “a little bit crazy.”
Sensitive, imaginative Arielle believes in ghosts, in contrast to her annoying, brainy older sister, Casey. The suspicious lakeside drowning in contemporary Velero, California, of Casey’s former friend, Perdita, triggers unresolved issues for Arielle and her family members, who have never recovered from her older brother’s drowning 10 years ago. Haunted by Perdita in bizarre dreams and strange visions, Arielle has trouble “telling the difference between sleep and wakefulness.” Grappling with intensifying psychic episodes and wondering who murdered Perdita, Arielle finds her shaky emotional balance further unsettled by Casey’s departure for college, her family’s downsizing move into an apartment, her best friend’s unexpected defection, and her own attraction to Perdita’s handsome brother. Sad, frightened, disoriented, confused, and abandoned, Arielle describes, in an intimate, fascinating, gripping first-person narration, how her “world seems to be crawling toward something different” as she descends into what she fears is insanity. The unexpected answers to what really happened to Perdita and what’s really happening to Arielle will shock readers as much as they do Arielle.
An edgy, intriguing debut novel of suspense, suspicion, and surprise . (Suspense. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4405-8811-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Merit Press
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
Two Rio Grande Valley high schoolers flirt with cutting out early but find reasons to finish school in this purposeful but intense tale. For Beto, it’s a combination of pride, disinterest in school and a clash with his caring but harsh father that sends him stalking away to spend the night in a Dumpster. For Beto's longtime friend Jessy, it’s a strong desire to be an artist, plus the strain of hearing her father beating her mother and knowing that her turn will be coming up one of these nights, that drives her to head for the bus to San Antonio. Using a mix of tenses and all three persons, Saldaña lays out his characters’ thoughts and emotional landscapes in broad strokes—creating a third angle of view by adding Beto’s little brother Roelito, who works his nalgas off in school but shows early signs of an ominous anger, as another narrative voice. The action takes place over the course of a little more than 12 hours, neatly capturing the spontaneity of teen impulses. Teen readers chafing at the domestic bit will find food for thought here. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55885-607-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
“Death is a period / at the end of a sentence,” concludes Annaleah, the 16-year-old protagonist of Schutz’s captivating fictional follow-up to her verse memoir (I Don’t Want To Be Crazy, 2006). And much like the resolute finality fixed in that tiny dot, Annaleah spends a great deal of this free-verse novel stuck contemplating the harsh reality that her sometime boyfriend, Brian—a seemingly healthy, dark-haired, cloudy-blue–eyed 17-year-old—has just dropped dead on the basketball court. Reeling from both physical loss and lack of closure to the meaning of their clandestine relationship, Annaleah finds herself routinely visiting and addressing the deceased Brian, until a chance graveside encounter yields advice that finally begins to hit home: “Nothing grows here,” says Brian’s grandmother, “besides grass.” At first blush appearing to pull out all the melodramatic stops in classic teen fashion, these refreshingly spare lines tackle tough relational issues—intimacy, risk, abandonment—with aplomb, making for a moving tale that also effectively shows teens how life can go on. (Fiction/poetry. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 970-0-545-16911-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: PUSH/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
