An energetically written but ultimately unpersuasive bit of ’90s nostalgia.
A teenager goes looking for her rogue rock-star mother in Goldberg’s third YA novel in a series.
It’s 2014 in Eugene, Oregon, and Love Marvin is the daughter of grunge-music royalty. Her parents, Nico Sullivan and Evan Marvin, were the creative force behind the 1990s band Evanico. Nico hasn’t been a reliable presence in her daughter’s life since Love was a baby. Now Love is 16 and a grunge fanatic like her two best friends, Frankie and Caden. “I live like the cave people did,” Love brags, referring to her use of a Sports Walkman and flip phone, adding, “Frankie and Caden feel the same and we’ve dubbed our crew 9021-Hole, after two of our fav 90’s cultural touchstones.” Shortly after learning that Nico has gone missing—well, more missing than usual—Love discovers Nico’s old diary in the attic. The girl becomes convinced that it’s the key to finding her mom, and she convinces Evan to let her, Frankie, and Caden take a road trip down the coast to visit Nico’s parents in Los Angeles. Along the way, with the words of her mother in her brain and ’90s music in her ears, Love starts to unravel how she and Nico are similar and different. Goldberg is an undeniably skilled writer, and his prose vibrates with his characters’ vitality: “a woman with a sea of frizzy orange hair the color of Sunkist opens the door with a funky-looking cigarette stamped between her lips and a floating caftan hanging off her thin body.” However, both Nico and Love come off as grating, and neither of their portrayals is terribly convincing. For instance, would Nico really have described her own dresses as “Lilith Fair-esque” in 1998, just a few months after the first Lilith Fair festival? The book may appeal to the many present-day teens who own Nirvana T-shirts, but there’s a flimsiness to the narrative that prevents sincere emotions from taking root.
An energetically written but ultimately unpersuasive bit of ’90s nostalgia.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-953944-21-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Wise Wolf Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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