A girl’s unusual journey to self-realization: disturbing, enchanting, and wise.
An uncanny darkness engulfs a girl obsessed with hatred for her violent father in this debut YA novel.
This deeply resonant tale is one that will linger in the mind long after reading it. Ten-year-old Lily’s alcoholic, rage-filled father, Henry, first came into her life two years ago, showing up at Aunt Ruth’s mountain cabin where the girl; her sister, Rose; and their mother were living. Henry moved them from the forests of British Columbia to a suburb that “hung off the big city of Vancouver like a wart.” If Henry has any love to give, it is submerged in verbal and physical cruelty. Lily and her mother bear the brunt. Quiet, enigmatic Rose, Lily’s only comfort, keeps her head down. “Henry lived in the clench of my jaw and the curl of my fists,” says Lily, the novel’s remarkable first-person narrator. Her mother, consumed by mental illness and an untold sense of guilt—and trailed by an unsettling shadow that only Lily can see—won’t leave Henry. (The tragic past that binds them emerges with maximum, shocking effect over the course of the story.) Lily finds strength in her hatred. Her quest for enough power to get rid of Henry and get Mama back to the healing wildness of the forest leads her to an unsettling book of spells and a bleak path to retribution. Yet the benign influence of her astute aunt, the forest itself, and Calum, the mysterious boy Lily encounters there, offer a lighter path if she chooses to take it. Layers of meaning abound in Dunsmore’s expressive writing in this striking tale: “Summer crept along the landscape, poppies poked out of the ground, and bleeding hearts dripped with blossoms.” The crowd at a racetrack “was a tangle of spicy cologne and skunky armpits, musky horses, and manure so bitter I could taste it.” Caterpillars “wrapped like rings” around Calum’s fingers and “returned as butterflies to sleep in his hands.” How much of what happens is reality, magic, Lily’s imagination, or a mix of all three? Readers can decide.
A girl’s unusual journey to self-realization: disturbing, enchanting, and wise.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-6532-8
Page Count: 139
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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