A compelling tale of teenage depression handled with humor and sensitivity.
In Ritchey’s (The Never Prayer, 2012) powerful YA novel, a teenage boy flirts with death as he struggles to find meaning in life.
Jim Dillenger—JD to his friends—lives an unremarkable upper-middle-class life in suburban Denver. He’s a gifted student, but he spends most of his time getting high with his apathetic group of friends. His parents’ crumbling marriage and the recent death of his grandfather have left him bitter and ready to end it all. He’s not great at keeping his suicidal aspirations a secret, and soon, the entire high school is betting on whether or not he’ll kill himself. It’s a powerful take on an all-too-relatable subject for teenage readers. JD is a typical snarky adolescent—he describes the school counselor as “spelunking down into middle-age”—and he’s unsatisfied by what he perceives as his mundane existence. He floats through life, lacking real connection to the people around him, until he finally meets an unlikely group of friends who try and pull him out of his malaise. This ragtag bunch includes an octogenarian neighbor with keen insight, a drug-dealing dropout with higher aspirations, and a pair of Christian girls whose beliefs are, at first, highly offensive to the staunchly agnostic Jim. These richly drawn, beautifully complex characters, and the relationships they forge with JD, form the novel’s backbone. The first-person prose is acerbic, witty and at times achingly poignant. The novel deftly handles issues of religion, balancing JD’s cutting appraisals of what he perceives as hypocrisy with gentler voices that display the power of spirituality without seeming sanctimonious. Although JD’s musings are at times whiny and self-indulgent, he’s a relatable character throughout—flawed but trying to find purpose. His keen perceptions of others and their motives, coupled with his sensitivity toward underdogs, make him a character to root for. Overall, the subject matter may make this a dark read for younger teens, but it’s a story to which many will connect and in which they may ultimately find hope.
A compelling tale of teenage depression handled with humor and sensitivity.Pub Date: April 3, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Courtney Literary
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections.
A young rabbit frets about her upcoming violin performance in Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s literary debut.
Mei Mei’s dream—“to share her music with the world”—is about to come true. She’s having her very first recital, complete with an orchestra, at the H’Opera House. But the day before the concert, Mei Mei is racked with anxiety. What if she plays a bum note in front of everyone? Sure enough, the worst happens mid-performance: She hits a clinker. But by remembering her mom’s reassuring sentiments from the night before (“Feel the wind…find the notes to make it right”), Mei Mei summons the strength to soldier on, and “wrong notes become right. Dissonance becomes beautiful.” At times, it all feels more like a resilience parable than a story, and the writing can be precious (“The flutter of butterflies wakes Mei Mei from her slumber”). Still, the message is solid, bolstered by O’Hara’s pencil and watercolor illustrations, which are plush-toy soft—fitting, as even prior to this book’s publication, a stuffed Mei Mei has been for sale at Grammy winner Laufey’s website. The tale features an all-animal, all-adorable cast, and endearingly, the art betrays no hint of modern times. A standout image presents Mei Mei onstage, temporarily incapacitated by her mistake and imagining her fellow musicians and their instruments with the color-blasted menace of an expressionist painting.
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217051748
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
