Well-meaning but unsatisfying.
Feather’s life is changed when one friend and then another go missing.
The Cree high school student lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with her single, successful mom and her brother, Kiowa, studying to be a doctor. Her friends, other Aboriginal young women, are not so lucky. Carli, the first to disappear and later mistakenly be ruled a suicide, has lived with many foster families. Mia, the second, lives with her neglectful mom and sexual-predator stepfather. Feather and her family and friends are modern, urban Natives whose lives are far from “the rez” but who are aware of the gulf between them and white society. Feather’s mom says about people in power: “They believe that we are bringing it on ourselves. They think women in our community deserve to be victimized just because of the colour of our skin.” In fact, Kiowa is erroneously arrested in Mia’s case, launching the mystery plot. Feather tries to get her brother out of jail and find the real killer, putting herself in danger when she tries to lure the killer. Issues drive the plot (a subplot concerns homophobia aimed at one of Feather’s friends) in this very brief contemporary novel, making for an informative, swift read but an unsatisfying mystery. Feather’s first-person narration is punctuated by the killer’s effectively creepy thoughts about his victims, raising tension, but a deus ex machina ending both thwarts earthly justice and cheats readers.
Well-meaning but unsatisfying. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4594-1088-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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
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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