A promising if overlong and ambivalent debut.
A determined teen uses sex to regain control over her life.
Mercedes is 17, hellbent on attending MIT, and secretly sleeping with boys to coach them on how to give their girlfriends the great first sexual experience they deserve. She adheres to a strict code, working with virgins only, insisting on absolute secrecy, and maintaining a pure image by attending the weekly prayer meetings led by her best friend, Angela. By doing this, Mercedes thinks she can control the delicacy of the service she’s offering as smoothly as she handles complex chemistry experiments. But she’s already violated her self-imposed boundary of working with just five deserving boys, then 10, then more. Eventually, Mercedes realizes that she’s using these encounters—and a secret, sex-only relationship with her lab partner, Zach—to exercise control over aspects of her life that make her feel unsafe. These include her relationship with her irresponsible, image-obsessed mother and the memories of her sexual assault years ago. Meanwhile, her expectation of privacy is crumbling, Zach wants to be her boyfriend, and she’s attracted to alluring new student Faye. When Mercedes’ secrets are exposed, she must confront the truths of her painful past and her complicated present. The novel exposes some of the double standards inherent in our purity-obsessed culture but stops short of interrogating the value of the concept of virginity, giving the story an uneasy ambiguity.
A promising if overlong and ambivalent debut. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-07596-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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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