A thoughtful book apart from its well-intentioned blunders around diverse representations. (Fiction. 12-18)
A teen is sent to a remote Wyoming horse camp to recover from the trauma of her parents’ impending divorce.
Sixteen-year-old Cassidy gets to spend the summer with mostly-troubled, mostly-rich teens at Point of No Return Youth Ranch, working off part of the cost of her stay by cleaning latrines. At camp she’s expected to ride the horses—despite her fear of them—and also work with yearling mustangs, accustoming them to human handling before they’re auctioned at the end of the summer. Slowly, Cassidy begins to open up to a few of her fellow campers and counselors, particularly her tentmate Alice and the junior counselor, Justin, who sneaks out at night to set penned mustangs loose. Told from Cassidy’s first-person point of view, it’s a complex story that unfolds slowly, with no startling transformations or revelations, just a real-life sense of growth, accomplishment, and purpose. In the end, Cassidy says, “…the space between what I thought happiness looks like and all the things I didn’t want to happen is the space where I found a new happiness….” A white default is assumed, with a few diverse characters present. Unfortunately, Asian-American Alice has a two-dimensional, clichéd backstory that feels inauthentic, and African-American camper, Ethan, behaves in a way that feeds negative stereotypes of black males in a tone-deaf, cringeworthy scene seemingly intended to evoke feel-good anti-racist solidarity.
A thoughtful book apart from its well-intentioned blunders around diverse representations. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-425-29047-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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