A well-balanced delivery of heavy topics tempered with wry humor.
A road trip leads to self-acceptance and inner strength.
It’s February, and Lexi Green’s heartbroken 19-year-old brother, Charlie, has been occupying the sofa since he came home for winter break in December. When musician Adrian Wildes goes missing, Charlie suggests they find him. The last thing the 15-year-old white high school sophomore wants to do is traipse all over the Northeast searching for a musician whose music she despises, but someone needs to look after Charlie, who is still reeling from a breakup months before. They enlist their neighbor, gay white boy Zack, as driver. Lexi and Charlie’s relationship is strained, primarily because Charlie’s depression darkens his perspective and Lexi believes he’s “sad because of nothing.” Lexi’s first-person narration is structured into two main, alternating parts: “Before” slowly reveals the events that led to a falling out with her best friends and to her breakup with Seth, a manipulative, patronizing faux feminist. “Now” is narrated in the present tense, and it’s here that Lexi finally admits to herself and to Charlie what happened with Seth in a troubling encounter she’s second-guessed the nature of for months. Lexi challenges male and female double standards by questioning them without pedantry or superiority; she’s genuinely perplexed by society’s conflicting messages about gender. Primary characters are white; four characters of color have minor roles.
A well-balanced delivery of heavy topics tempered with wry humor. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-234842-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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