An intriguing and worthy novel that benefits from its youthful perspective.
Shaw and Orey offer a coming-of-age World War II story as seen through the eyes of a French Jewish teenager with a gift for music.
Benjamin Cohen celebrates his bar mitzvah in Rouen, France, just as the Nazis begin their assault on the country in 1940. As a gift, he receives a cockatiel that he eventually names Frère Jacques, in whom he often confides revealing details of his life. As the second son of a doctor, Benjamin doesn’t have the clear ambitions of his father or his older brother, Émile, his parents’ favorite child, who’s studying for a future career in medicine. As the German military takes over the town, Émile leaves his studies to work for the French Resistance, unbeknownst to his family. Meanwhile, Benjamin excels at playing the violin, but as he listens to sounds of the carillon playing at a nearby cathedral, he yearns to learn how to play it himself. Benjamin convinces M. deTarot, the carillonneur at St. Julian’s, to teach him all he knows about the instrument. At the cathedral, Benjamin calls himself Benjamin Simone, as he believes it sounds “more French”; he meets Marie-Noëlle, who also plays music there, and, later, while exploring hidden passageways and rooms at St. Julian’s, he becomes acquainted with Jacques-Milan, a man with significant war injuries. M. deTarot’s declining health eventually requires Benjamin to play the carillon for weekly concerts at a critical juncture in the story. Over the course of this novel, Shaw and Orey present a tale of secrets, love, and hope in which Benjamin must quickly mature as war rages around him. Each of the secondary characters is revealed as a complex human being, and their stories effectively intertwine with Benjamin’s. As the narrative goes on, the authors express the tragedy of war in dramatic detail through the teenager’s diary entries, which he writes with the encouragement of his psychotherapist to help with stress; along the way, salient details about Rouen and Benjamin’s family members are revealed.
An intriguing and worthy novel that benefits from its youthful perspective.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66553-840-4
Page Count: 244
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the well-meaning warmth, a wearying plod.
Can a 17-year-old with her first girlfriend prevent real-life folks from discovering her online fandoms?
Cass is proudly queer, happily fat, and extremely secretive about being a fan who role-plays on Discord. Back in middle school, she had what she calls a gaming addiction, playing “The Sims” so much her parents had to take the game away. Now, turning to her role-play friends to cope with her fighting parents, she worries that people will judge her for her fannishness and online life. To be fair, her grades are suffering. And sure, maybe she’s missed a college application deadline. Also, her mom has suddenly left Minneapolis and moved to Maine to be with a man she met online. But on the other hand, Cass is finally dating her amazingly cute longtime crush, Taylor. Pansexual Taylor is a gamer, a little bit punk, White like Cass, and so, so great—but she still can’t help comparing her to Rowan, Cass’ online best friend and role-playing ship partner. But Rowan doesn’t want to be a dirty little secret and doesn’t see why Cass can’t be honest about this part of her life. The inevitable train wreck of her lies looms on the horizon for months in an overlong morality play building to the climax that includes tidy resolutions to all the character arcs that are quite heartwarming but, in the case of Cass’ estranged mother, narratively unearned.
Despite the well-meaning warmth, a wearying plod. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-324332-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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