Imperfect yet earnest works celebrating love in all forms for reluctant teen readers.
Boy meets boy and falls in love in this angst-y modern reworking of Romeo and Juliet set in Winnipeg.
In this latest adaptation of Shakespeare’s most famous love story, the plot does not matter nearly as much as the characters’ sexual orientations. The lovers this time are Julian Capulet, a gay 19-year-old who uses his painting to hide from the world after being bullied, and Romeo Montague, a closeted teen jock who indulges in gay bashing to avoid confronting his sexuality. The world that Harwood-Jones depicts in this pair of companion novels (Romeo for Real tells the tale from Romeo’s point of view), in which gender fluidity is completely accepted and mothers dole out condoms and allow their children to have sex at home without judgment, feels so fantastical that it proves how far society still has to go in the quest for true acceptance. The author’s passion for diversity is evident, but the novels feel so packed with nonconformity that characters become political statements rather than three-dimensional people. Nearly every character lies somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum, and God is referred to as female, which, while laudable, feels forced at certain points. While the theme of star-crossed teenage lovers is timeless, the novels’ viselike grip on names and plot points from Shakespeare’s play drives them into the realm of the hyperbolic. Julian is implied at least part Chinese due to his mother’s surname, but race is indeterminate for all characters. Despite their flaws, these novels provide much-needed representation for those whom society marginalizes.
Imperfect yet earnest works celebrating love in all forms for reluctant teen readers. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4594-1292-7
Page Count: 168
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Several yards short of a touchdown.
A transgender boy starting over at a new school falls hard for a popular cheerleader with a reputation to protect in this debut.
On the first day of senior year, transgender boy Pony locks eyes with cisgender cheerleader Georgia. They both have pasts they want to leave behind. No one at Hillcrest High knows that Pony is transgender, and he intends to keep it that way. Georgia’s last boyfriend shook her trust in boys, and now she’s determined to forget him. As mutual attraction draws them together, Pony and Georgia must decide what they are willing to risk for a relationship. Pony’s best friend, Max, who is also transgender, disapproves of Pony’s choice to live stealth; this disagreement leads to serious conflict in their relationship. Meanwhile, Georgia and Pony behave as if Pony’s trans identity was a secret he was lying to her about rather than private information for him to share of his own volition. The characters only arrive at a hopeful resolution after Pony pays high physical and emotional prices. McSmith places repeated emphasis on the born-in-the-wrong-body narrative when the characters discuss trans identities. Whiteness is situated as the norm, and all main characters are white.
Several yards short of a touchdown. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294317-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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