An entertaining interplanetary teen adventure.
In Baer’s YA novel, a 15-year-old girl and her cousin discover they can astrally project themselves while asleep.
Abby Kendrick has felt lonely in her northern Oregon town of Eerie ever since her cousin and best friend, Logan, moved to Pittsburgh.Alone on Halloween night, watching a scary movie, Abby gets a scare of her own when items in the house seem to start moving around on their own. After a few frantic calls from her cousin, she finds out he has the ability to travel in astral form, invisible to others, while he’s asleep. He calls the incidents OBEs (“out-of-body experiences”), and on Halloween, he says, he used this ability to prank her. After he’s explained how it works, Abby soon realizes that apparently OBEs are something that other members of her family can do—including her. Together, the two cousins visit various landmarks around the world, exploring and seeing sights they never dreamed they’d be able to visit. But Logan seems to be hiding something; it seems that he’s gone far beyond Earth to explore other parts of the universe, including a far-off planet he’s named Mysterium. She can tell that the distant travel is taking its toll on Logan, as he looks unhealthier every time she sees him. Abby may be the only person who can save him from himself. Over the course of Baer’s tale with SF elements, she walks a fine line between typical teenage problems and those that arise only because of her and her cousin’s strange ability. The story takes time to show how Abby has plenty of more realistic and relatable issues to deal with in her own life: She’s tutoring one of the most popular girls in her grade, her alcoholic uncle seems to be drinking again, and her parents have been arguing more and more. As such, both teenage and adult readers will find things to enjoy in this story, which keeps up a steady pace. The mystery of just what Logan is up to will keep readers engaged throughout.
An entertaining interplanetary teen adventure.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 336
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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