Haunting, unusual, and real.
After experiencing sexual trauma, Dell is lost.
Socially ungraceful and an outsider at school, she’s spending the summer at the island cottage where her mother, Anne, grew up, with Anne’s new boyfriend, Joe, and his daughter, Ivy. Her days are filled with picking up trash dumped by an unruly tenant and little else. Anne is overprotective and seems to like prickly Ivy more than her own daughter; Ivy has something against Dell from the outset. On top of that, Dell is being haunted by her maternal Aunt Julie, who was disavowed by the family and died the year before Dell was born. Jones never shies away from brutally honest discussions of sexual topics that were even more taboo in the 2000s when the book is set, capturing in particular the toxicity of biphobia as Dell is confused by her intense desire, earlier for boys and now, for Ivy. Ivy’s relationship with Dell shifts from possible stepsisters to cautious almost-friends to lovers; at its core it is about two difficult girls who understand each other’s strangeness better than anyone else. The Ontario setting isn’t claustrophobic, rather allowing the characters to exist within their own universe. As Dell excavates family secrets, it’s clear this is also a story about intergenerational love; understanding ghosts, both internal and external; and becoming a person who will allow others to love them. Dell and her family are White; Joe is unspecified First Nations, and Ivy’s mother is White.
Haunting, unusual, and real. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77321-635-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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
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
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