Riveting and relevant.
Twins with a lineage of magic and a family history stained by violent betrayal pursue blood and justice in this bewitching contemporary fantasy.
Secrets and grief have torn Cris and Clem Trudeau’s family into pieces. All the people Clem loves die or abandon him. The doctor says his mother has weeks to live. His aunt left their family’s estate and won’t explain why. Ever since their father’s fatal heart attack 11 months ago, his twin sister has shut him out. But no matter how much she misses her brother, Cris can’t bear to tell him the truth about why she’s given up practicing generational magic. When Clem and Cris find a hex doll beneath their mother’s bed, they realize their survival depends on reuniting their estranged relatives. Someone wants to destroy their family, perhaps the same someone who blamed their grandmother for murdering the mayor’s daughter 30 years ago. Set in New Orleans during an election year, realistic, magically charged political intrigue surrounds this high-suspense mystery about a justice-seeking family of Black gen—conjurers who channel power from ancestors and the moon. Writing from multiple perspectives with trauma-informed care, Benton-Walker develops each character with emotional complexity, including those with insidious intentions. Social themes, including cultural appropriation of sacred practices, racism, mental illness, sex work, sexuality, and consent, adeptly intertwine with the story’s conflict. This page-turning debut demands a sequel.
Riveting and relevant. (author’s note, magic chart, family trees) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-82592-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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