A well-crafted tale of the troubles of high school life, told in a slightly antiquated style.
Three troubled teenagers find support in one another in Ceci’s second YA novel in a series.
High school sophomore Mally Jacobs recently moved to Croy, Oklahoma, and he’s not thrilled about it. He’s come to live with and assist his ailing maternal grandfather, former pastor Matthew Jacobs, and the old man’s overbearing landlady, Mrs. Oldfield. Mally’s mother grew up in Croy, but she left town 15 years ago for reasons unknown to her son. On his first day of school, Randy Edom, the center on the varsity football team, reluctantly takes Mally under his wing. Randy wants to ask out one of the school’s popular girls, but his single mother keeps pestering him to get a job to help support the household, which would leave him little free time. Still, Randy inadvertently finds himself on a date with Joanie Tibbits, the bookish daughter of the local pharmacist, and the pair, along with Mally, fall into an unlikely friendship. The two boys live next door to each other on the wrong side of town, where “the run-down house on the corner was not an aberration, but more of a signpost indicating which way they were all headed.” Randy starts working in Joanie’s father’s store, and the three teens bond over Randy’s unexpected discovery of poetry. What’s more, they find that they have romantic feelings for each other: Randy for Joanie, Joanie for Randy, and Mally for Randy, as well. The three sensitive souls provide comfort for one another in conservative-minded Croy, but the secrets they harbor—which are sure to come to light sooner or later—may tear them apart just as they’ve started to realize how much they truly need one another.
Over the course of this novel, Ceci’s prose is smooth and often lyrical, as when Mally describes the feeling of realizing that there was a word—homosexual—to describe people like him: “Once last summer he’d climbed one of the pylons behind the baseball diamond for no apparent reason, his heart racing as he got closer to the thick black cables and their murderous buzz. That feeling was nothing compared to what clamored in his heart now, making the arteries in his neck jump like rabbits.” Although the general themes of the novel are more or less timeless, the book reads, in some ways, like an artifact from a previous era. It’s set in an unspecified year in the latter half of the 20th century, and the characters often feel as if they’ve been pilfered from a 1980s high school drama. This isn’t a flaw, in and of itself, but it’s possible that readers of modern YA fiction may find that the book’s language, pacing, and personalities feel somewhat old-fashioned. Even so, Ceci does paint a moving tale of friendship and community that’s in keeping with his larger project of chronicling goings-on in the slow-moving town of Croy. (The novel also includes simple, black-and-white illustrations by Crosby.)
A well-crafted tale of the troubles of high school life, told in a slightly antiquated style.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Les Croyens Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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 heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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