Quiet yet thought-provoking.
A teen grapples with both her own identity and the role identity played in her sister’s death in this French import.
It’s been one year since Muslim Sohane’s younger sister, Djelila, was burned alive by religious extremists in their apartment building in the projects. She recounts the incidents leading up to Djelila’s death, using present tense to place readers directly in the scenes and past tense as she recalls what happened from her current state of grief. Sohane and Djelila remain fierce allies, but Sohane questioningly (and sometimes jealously) notices that her sister has started to break away from their family’s Muslim traditions by sporting tight clothes and drinking alcohol. She, on the other hand, explores her religious and feminist beliefs (“Is it possible to be a woman and Muslim at the same time?”) by wearing the hijab. Both sisters’ actions are noticed immediately. Djelila becomes a source of contempt by a Taliban-like gang, while Sohane is expelled from high school for wearing a headscarf thanks to a French law that requires strict separation of church and state. The story, based on actual events, never becomes a question of whether Sohane should wear her headscarf but ruminates on how young people cope with being siblings, second-generation immigrants, feminists and believers. Rather than overwhelming the narration, these themes twine together powerfully.
Quiet yet thought-provoking. (glossary, author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74376-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
An original blend of queer romance, nuanced revenge plot, and religious deconstruction.
An outcast teen in Ohio returns to Bible camp with a secret vendetta.
Riley Ackerman’s family stopped going to church after the sanctimonious Pastor Young publicly shamed her and her sister, Hannah; Riley came out as bisexual, and Hannah had an abortion. But walking away forever is proving difficult for Riley since the pastor’s twins, Ben and Julia, are her longtime best friends—and she has a secret crush on Julia that she’s afraid to reveal. When Riley gets in a fight at school with Hannah’s former best friend, she dodges suspension by accepting a deal from the principal: She agrees to attend church camp over spring break (along with peers who see her as a lost soul) and submit an essay containing her reflections on what she’s learned. But Riley won’t be subdued so easily. She decides instead to write a scathing takedown of Pastor Young’s teachings, which becomes a secret crusade to undermine his authority among the other campers, too. But in the process of seeking her revenge, Riley becomes aware that her feelings on the situation—and maybe everyone else’s—are more complicated than she realized. Though the book’s themes are seemingly heavy, they’re sweetened by pop culture references galore and the narrator’s sharp, clever sense of humor. Riley and the majority of the cast members in this Midwestern Baptist community are white.
An original blend of queer romance, nuanced revenge plot, and religious deconstruction. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593692745
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A foreboding, flower-filled, feminist horror story.
Kit’s dad always said that her grandmother was dead.
But when Kit’s father dies suddenly, Agatha Starling, his mysterious (and very much alive) mother, invites Kit and her mom to leave North Dakota and spend the winter holidays at her home. Agatha lives in a small apartment even though she still owns massive Starling House, the old family home that’s since been turned into a museum. When Kit and her mother arrive in Rosemont, a Stepford-like small town in Wisconsin, for Christmas, what awaits her isn’t a quaint holiday with her long-lost grandmother but a horror-filled trip complete with creepy townsfolk, magical roses, disembodied voices, and even a mysterious death. When Kit’s mother suddenly disappears under strange circumstances and her grandmother seems more preoccupied with an upcoming New Year’s town festival, Kit knows something is not right. She is forced to rely on herself and her few new Rosemont friends to figure out what is really going on and what exactly is keeping Rosemont seeming so outwardly perfect. This is an original and fast-paced horror novel with elements of fantasy. While the prose is at times overly embellished and the supporting characters lack significant depth, the deliciously chilling plot advances swiftly toward a conclusion that will leave readers delightfully creeped out and thoroughly content. Main characters are White; Kit is bisexual, and there is some diversity in race and sexual orientation among supporting characters.
A foreboding, flower-filled, feminist horror story. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9780593572337
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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