An Australian import that examines the reverberations a traumatic past has upon the present. Winter is a girl who knows what she wants, and now at 16, she aims to get it. In foster care with diligent but unloving relatives for the past 12 years, she has nagged them and her lawyer into allowing her to return to her family’s cattle ranch. Her goal is not simply to return home—she needs to discover the truth behind her parents’ deaths. When he isn’t writing about hypothetical guerrilla wars, Marsden (The Night Is for Hunting, 2001, etc.) frequently presents stories that conceal a single shocking moment in the past from the reader, and frequently from the protagonist. This offering is one of the latter stripe, and the narrative follows Winter as she not-very-tactfully reasserts her control over her property and begins to plumb her past. Much of the tale reads like teen wish-fulfillment: Winter bullies the adults around her into letting her do what she wants, lives in her own house without supervision and with access to an apparently very large sum of money (which allows her to redecorate at some length), and discovers a handsome and charming boy at the ranch next door. For all that, Winter is an appealingly gutsy narrator who keeps the story moving as she rips up blackberries and insults everyone around her. If the eventual shocker is rather predictable (and therefore not so shocking) and easily discovered, Winter’s own need to learn the truth and ability to assimilate it are well established in the development of her character. Not up to the standard set by the author’s Letters from the Inside (1994), but likely to find a readership nevertheless. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-439-36849-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
IN THE NEWS
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
BOOK REVIEW
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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