A gripping story of strength in the face of unrelenting challenges.
The Utah wilderness offers cousins Katie and Aster an awe-inspiring setting in which to heal—and maybe even save another person’s life.
Bestselling author Richards’ latest is told in chapters that alternate points of view between the two main characters, as well as a mysterious, unnamed third voice. The novel opens on a night that changes everything for the two girls. Then the action jumps ahead 11 months, as Aster and Katie, who share a love of hiking, are dropped off for a 49-mile, multiday backpacking trip in Utah during which trauma, healing, and a growing, menacing mystery unfold. Wilderness thrills move the story along, although the number of challenges the girls face does begin to beggar belief: scorpions, prickly pear thorns, illness, flooding, a rattlesnake, losing the trail, running low on food and water, encountering sinister people, and experiencing a terrifying accident. The writing evokes a powerful sense of place in the descriptions of the canyons and in the information on outdoor preparedness and safety. But the novel’s real strength lies in the thoughts and conversations the cousins share around being a survivor of trauma as well as the complexities of navigating a relationship with a survivor. They heal while they traverse an unforgiving environment that demands all their wits to survive as the novel comes to a heart-pounding conclusion. Most characters are coded white.
A gripping story of strength in the face of unrelenting challenges. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276007
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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