A gripping mystery that succeeds due to a headstrong protagonist who’s unwilling to fail.
A teenager unwittingly puts herself in peril as she works to clear her deceased father’s name in Biel’s YA thriller.
Sixteen-year-old Chloe Cowyn’s world is turned upside down when she finds her father, Dean, dead with a needle in his arm in the Wisconsin cemetery for which he’s the caretaker. The local police are content to treat the case as an overdose by an addict. However, Chloe refuses to believe that she wouldn’t know that the only other person in her household was using drugs. A TV crime drama buff, she decides to investigate her father’s death herself, but she has two problems to overcome. First, Maggie Gill, her aunt and only living relative, is a foreign correspondent who’s undercover and unreachable for three weeks. To gain freedom from well-meaning but intrusive adults, she tells everyone that Maggie has arrived unexpectedly, which allows Chloe to move back into her home alone. After discovering that Dean’s savings have disappeared, she takes a job as a server at a retro diner. She and Jarvis Keen, her chemistry partner-turned-boyfriend, discover that her family’s criminal past has come back to haunt her. In this first book of the Maggie & Chloe Mysteries series, Biel has created a winning protagonist in Chloe; Maggie only shows up late in the proceedings, so the extent of her contribution will have to be evaluated in future volumes. Stubborn Chloe finds herself in over her head for much of the story, largely because she has difficulty trusting others, aside from Jarvis, whose time with her gives him an escape from his troubled home life. There’s also a solid cast of supporting characters, led by diner owner Molly Bell and the police chief, Barnett. Biel also effectively makes use of three different narrative perspectives—primarily Chloe’s, supplemented by third-person flashbacks featuring Dean and the first-person viewpoint of an unknown “Watcher.” One quibble is that residents of a small Wisconsin town surely would be more aware of suspicious visitors. Overall, though, this is a strong beginning to a lively hero’s adventures.
A gripping mystery that succeeds due to a headstrong protagonist who’s unwilling to fail.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780998173641
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Lost Lake Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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