A moving collection from a promising talent who has a lot to say.
A debut volume of short fiction explores the ways that people can hurt and heal one another.
A third grade teacher contemplates the rise of Donald Trump while his girlfriend obsesses about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. A gay couple keep their love secret while hosting a morning radio show in upstate New York. A woman leaves her husband and goes with her daughter to her mother’s house, where she must contend with her parent’s new habit of yelling at people who aren’t there. In this collection, Chin tackles the difficulties of close human relationships: the sorts of tensions that exist between relatives, friends, and lovers that are rarely discussed but that can come to define the parties involved. In “The End of the World,” a high schooler’s crush on his allegedly straight best friend comes to a head during a Fourth of July party. In the title story, the same two boys deal with the aftermath of the incident, attempting to grapple with feelings of confusion, identity, and betrayal. Between the longer stories, the author includes a number of flash pieces that cut even more directly at these themes, as in “Interrogation,” about a disturbing game played by two siblings: “When we started, you were five, I was seven. Back when two years spelled a difference and I could still tell you what we’d play, and in the absence of Mom or Dad, I might as well have been Mom or Dad, might as well have been God, because who were you to question my instruction?” In its own way, each tale seems to ask: How can the characters continue after all the hurt that they have done to one another? After all the damage they have done to themselves? Chin’s prose is sparse and plainspoken, recalling any number of American fiction’s working-class minimalists. Here he describes the protagonist in “Better”: “Joel wrote bullet point descriptions for a company that sold traffic cones, hard hats, safety glasses, and harnesses. Selling durability. Selling comfort. He never slept enough. Started each day with a Centrum and a cigarette. The combination of the two on an empty stomach made him nauseous.” The writing occasionally flowers into a chatty descriptiveness, particularly when the author discusses the physical environs of Shermantown, New York, the fictional place in which a number of the stories are set: “Tonight, it’s an older crew. Not his friend’s parents’ place, but a house of their own. Out in the Podunk-est outskirts of Shermantown. Rundown as it is, the house is big, I’ll give them that, with flat eaves and segments of roof already set up with lawn chairs.” His characters—mostly dissatisfied young men and older boys groping for meaning—are well drawn and sympathetic, though the pieces vary in terms of their emotional impact. The best are the Shermantown tales, which better access the confusion of youth and the tragedy of small cities, but every story is compelling enough to carry readers through to the gritty end.
A moving collection from a promising talent who has a lot to say.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-943900-16-9
Page Count: 136
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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