An earnest, slowly unfolding drama.
In this debut novel, a young woman falls in love with an ethereal space boy who lands in the woods behind her house.
Delta Wilding, 18, and her 16-year-old sister, Bee, have been struggling to make ends meet and understand what happened in their magical house, named the Wild West, ever since their father disappeared through a closet door months earlier. The sisters are used to being regarded as misfits in their strange, insular town of Darling, California, even as Delta’s on-again, off-again relationship with Tag Rockford III, son of the wealthy, villainous mayor, creates friction for all around them. However, when Starling, a boy who appears to have fallen from the sky, lands in the woods behind their house, their rift with the town crescendos into not just mistrust, but actual danger. The plentiful swoon-y aspects of this supernatural love story will be best appreciated by fans of the genre, who will thrill to the vivid descriptions of Starling’s messy curls and pale, blue-tinted, tattooed skin. Evoking a darkly whimsical tone and told mainly from Delta’s third-person perspective with chapters interspersed from Bee’s and Starling’s points of view, this tale is an engrossing, languidly paced work of suspense exploring family and small-town dynamics and loyalties. The main human characters read as White.
An earnest, slowly unfolding drama. (Paranormal romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8110-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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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