Skilled storytelling and starkly gripping details of gang life can’t paper over the contradictions: This is stylish gangster...
Gritty realism and airbrushed romance go head to head in this tale of life among Washington, D.C.’s street-wise gangs.
Years after her best friend died in a drive-by shooting, Blaise seeks safety and protection by joining Core 9, a gang active in her downtrodden neighborhood. As their rite of passage, Blaise and Ariel opt for a severe beating rather than the gang rape Melissa endures. At the pinnacle of Core 9’s hierarchy is Trek, a handsome sadist whose favor is essential for survival. Desired by both Trek and her de facto boyfriend, Rico, virginal Blaise longs for Rico’s best friend, Satch. When Trek offers Blaise pay to use her feminine wiles to draw gangbangers out for Trek to kill or maim, Blaise, guided by pure motives a saint would envy, reluctantly agrees. She’s embarrassed but thrilled when Melissa’s makeover transforms her into a sleek seductress, but she’s sickened by the job itself. The girls of Core 9 are lovely; the guys handsome, muscular hotties who sell drugs but largely stick to beer. All, even Trek, are smart and self-aware, their families vicious or victimized. While some characters speak Spanish, none are identified by race or culture; ungrounded in cultural identity, characters feel generic.
Skilled storytelling and starkly gripping details of gang life can’t paper over the contradictions: This is stylish gangster porn. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220688-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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
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
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