A haunting page-turner that smartly explores the complexities of teenage relationships and feelings of self-worth.
When police investigate a teenage girl’s supposed suicide, New Helvetia High’s most exclusive friend group comes under scrutiny.
The Thrashers are high school royalty. Zack Thrasher (the group’s namesake), Lucy Reed, Paige Montgomery, and Julian Hollister are wealthy and attractive. Jodi Dillon, who feels ordinary by comparison, has been friends with Zack since childhood. Not just anyone can become a Thrasher, but that was Emily Mills’ goal. After Emily is found dead the evening of prom, rumors circulate around school that she was Thrashed—socially ostracized—for trying to join the clique. Everything starts to unravel after investigators find Emily’s journal detailing how she was bullied by all of them—except Jodi, who rebuffed her. Jodi feels compelled to seek the truth surrounding Emily’s death without implicating her friends, but the more she learns, the more she doubts their credibility. The story’s careful, highly effective pacing contributes to the increasingly unsettling tension as strange and terrifying incidents occur. Readers who empathize with insecure Jodi are kept in suspense until the end, feeling relief whenever the others show genuine care for her while nervously anticipating the possibility that harm may befall her. Main characters largely present white. Lucy has brown skin, and Jodi is cued as white and Latine.
A haunting page-turner that smartly explores the complexities of teenage relationships and feelings of self-worth. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781250377173
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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