Unsettling and sharply observed.
A high school senior must come to terms with complicated feelings about her best friend’s death.
Nora Radford’s long-standing plans for the future include her best friend, Julia Hoskins: They’ll finish high school and attend McGill University as roommates. The problem is, Nora has a chance at early acceptance to another university with a competitive journalism program that would be a dream come true, and she isn’t sure about her sometimes-toxic friendship with Julia. Julia is cool and popular, but she can also be a bigoted bully, constantly putting people down and spreading nasty rumors. After Dillan Fletcher, Nora’s childhood best friend who moved away, transfers to their school, her increasingly close (and possibly romantic) relationship with him throws her friendship with Julia into stark relief, and Nora finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend. When Julia dies unexpectedly, Nora must confront her grief while reckoning with her complicated feelings about Julia as she uncovers a web of lies. Told in alternating timelines set before and after Julia’s death, Ritany’s novel adeptly captures the stomach-churning feeling of betrayal by a friend and the confusion of being constantly manipulated and lied to. Some plot points feel vague, and the alternating timelines can at times be hard to follow, but the book ultimately propels readers through one gut-wrenching discovery after another. The main characters read white; background characters bring diversity in ethnicity and sexuality.
Unsettling and sharply observed. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593569269
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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
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
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