A transportive, thrillingly queer adventure.
Sixteen-year-old Joe Garbe leaves the family farm, finding trouble and romance in Chicago during the Great Depression.
Arriving by train, Joe meets his cousin, Bernie, at the station and is instantly enamored by the sights and sounds of the city. Thanks to Bernie, Joe lands a job in the kitchen of the Lago Vista hotel, where he now meets Eddie Zambriskie. Their chemistry is palpable from the start, and they start dating. Meanwhile, Joe’s desperate need to settle his family’s debts back home in Kickapoo gets him involved in an underhanded scheme: His role is to take a French conversation class with wealthy people who will be sailing to Europe on vacation and gather information about his classmates’ names and travel dates so that Bernie’s criminal confederates can burgle their homes while they’re away. This ruse is complicated by Joe’s love affair with Raymond Kenrick, one of his marks, who introduces him to kissing, so-called pansy parlors, and sex. The emotionally nuanced characters, most of whom are presumed White, navigate stages of guilt, paranoia, and remorse as they swindle as a means of survival—with tragically beautiful results. Through passionate, cinematic scenes, Klise poignantly captures the fears and joys of being gay in this polished work of historical fiction.
A transportive, thrillingly queer adventure. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-61620-858-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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