A thought-provoking examination of how character can be tested.
A high school girl agonizes over the consequences of a mistake that she and her friends made in Christie’s YA series entry.
Seventeen-year-old Piper Rose, a senior at Millington Valley High School in Pennsylvania, is a talented ballet dancer with a promising future. She’s also the manager for the school’s soccer team, which counts her two brothers, Noah and Cooper, as members. They’re under enormous pressure from Coach Christopher O’Connell and many other town residents to finally beat their rival, Concord; success would mean athletics scholarships like the one that Ethan Horn, the older brother of the Roses’ teammate Jacob, won. The Horn and Rose families are connected through friendship and business, but that connection is complicated by Piper’s crush on Ethan and Jacob’s crush on her. She jumps at a chance to attend Noah’s 18th birthday drinking/hunting party at a quarry, even though she has to serve as designated driver, as it might finally give her a chance to tell Ethan how she feels. But a terrible accident and a subsequent coverup throw all their lives into turmoil; Piper even starts committing acts of self-harm. Can they—and should they—avoid a final reckoning? In her second Millington Valley novel, Christie offers a setup that’s somewhat reminiscent of Lois Duncan’s classic I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973), minus some of the thriller aspects. This allows the story to focus on Piper’s monthslong struggle with her conscience, which the author describes in an authentic voice; the teen’s feelings of loyalty and her fears for the future come to the fore, while she also deals with romantic difficulties, her former best friend’s jealousy, and other issues. Other characters’ personalities are also well rounded and enhance the book as a whole. Readers who lack an interest in sports may not feel engaged by the soccer drama, and the characters’ back-and-forth decisions on whether to confess also eventually become repetitive. For the most part, though, the tale makes for compelling reading.
A thought-provoking examination of how character can be tested.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68433-755-2
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
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