An effective, often moving tale of teen angst, heartache, betrayal, friendship, and self-discovery.
A teenage jock and a solitary outsider undergo profound changes when their lives unexpectedly converge in this debut YA novel.
Failing his pre-calculus class, high school football star Duke is assigned a tutor: brainy loner Tommy, whose shadowlike existence on campus barely registers with his peers. Duke is uncomfortable with Tommy’s extreme reserve but impressed with his ability to make what the athlete needs to learn understandable, especially when his grades soar. But this poignant tale doesn’t trace a predictable or sugarcoated path to a friendship between opposites. Duke, who has witnessed his cousin traumatized by violence, intuits that beneath Tommy’s reserve is “a meteor shower of sorrow.” Langan’s well-defined first-person narratives, switching between Tommy and Duke, reveal very different lives. Tommy’s painful story shifts back and forth in time, relating horrific childhood experiences with his drug-taking mother—unsparingly realistic and difficult to read—that scarred him, sparking feelings of guilt, anger, and loss. The book also recounts his rescue by loving grandparents and how bewilderment and a sense of betrayal closed him down emotionally after his abrupt loss of contact with his sole childhood friend, Roxy. The girl’s compassion and high spirits hid her own painful secret. Duke’s present-day narrative, meanwhile, encompasses a stable family, his passion for football, and his aching turmoil over how he lets his cheerleader girlfriend, Kristy, mess with his head. She insists that they pretend not to be involved at school so her dad won’t find out, seemingly not because Duke is a Black student and she is White. The reason is her religious fanatic father insists that she date someone of their faith. Duke’s distinctive voice reveals a 17-year-old gradually cultivating self-reflection and self-respect, influenced by his connection with Tommy and by the value he discovers in his growing friendship based on mutual respect with a girl named Charlie. (Their lively verbal interactions enjoyably leaven the tale’s emotional intensity.) Tommy’s realization that “I’m still that little boy afraid of what the world would take from him” is the beginning of his own ability to move on. Although a shocking event precludes a traditional, happily-ever-after conclusion, the story ends on a touching ray of hope.
An effective, often moving tale of teen angst, heartache, betrayal, friendship, and self-discovery.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68-433751-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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
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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