A soap-operatic treatment of an issue that would unfold better with a more nuanced approach.
Defying parents, religion, friends and tragic circumstances, two teenage girls manage to nurture their growing relationship and find safety in each other’s arms.
To all outward appearances, Jenny O’Connor has it all: popularity, a loving home and plenty of confidence. Nicola Jackson seems to be her polar opposite: socially awkward and forced to hide painful secrets about her home life. When the two of them collide in the street, it seems unlikely that their friendship will last beyond the day, but they discover they are stronger and happier as a couple. Even as their friends and families strive to break their alliance, they fall deeper and deeper into love. Debut novelist Dunne offers a quick-moving but predictable plot populated by characters who seem blatantly determined to school readers on the evils of prejudice. The heavy-handedness of the lesson overshadows nearly every interaction, and the histrionics assigned to certain scenes make them better suited to an earlier setting. One 16-year-old attacks with “People like you and her should be locked up to protect the rest of us.” This protest feels out of place in a contemporary teenager’s world of instant access to the latest celebrity same-sex couples.
A soap-operatic treatment of an issue that would unfold better with a more nuanced approach. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60282-970-1
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
A promising premise subverted by the execution.
A restless AcroYoga influencer pursues love and money on reality TV.
Twenty-three-year-old Orielle Lennox’s post-college life has stalled out. Unhappy in a lackluster relationship and fueled by her older sister’s criticisms that she’s passive and codependent, Orie tries to jump-start her future by answering a casting call for the reality TV show Survivor. Discovering her father’s gambling problem and being dumped by her boyfriend shortly before leaving for Fiji to film make Orie all the more eager to dive headlong into the competition as an escape from her problems. Upon arrival, Orie (who’s cued white) and the nine other contestants—a racially diverse group of young, fit older teens and 20-somethings—find out that they’re actually on a new reality spinoff called Attached at the Hip. Furthermore, each participant has been carefully selected as a possible love or friendship match for several other competitors. Orie quickly allies with Remy, an Italian American gym bro who also happens to be her unrequited high school crush. But as the days of sun and starvation wear on and new connections form, Orie starts to question Remy’s motives and wonders who, if anyone, she can trust. Unfortunately, Orie comes across as frustratingly impulsive and immature rather than quirky and lovably offbeat. And, although moments of situational hilarity keep the story light, readers may get bogged down in the inane dialogue and the abundance of pop-culture references.
A promising premise subverted by the execution. (Fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781250760098
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A very full mixed bag.
In the sequel to Furyborn (2018), Rielle and Eliana struggle across time with their powers and prophesied destinies.
Giving readers only brief recaps, this book throws them right into complicated storylines in this large, lovingly detailed fantasy world filled with multiple countries, two different time periods, and hostile angels. Newly ordained Rielle contends with villainous Corien’s interest in her, the weakening gate that holds the angels at bay, and distrust from those who don’t believe her to be the Sun Queen. A thousand years in the future, Eliana chafes under her unwanted destiny and finds her fear of losing herself to her powers (like the Blood Queen) warring with her need to save those close to her. The rigid alternation between time-separated storylines initially feels overstuffed, undermining tension, but once more characters get point-of-view chapters and parallels start paying off, the pace picks up. The multiethnic cast (human versus angelic is the only divide with weight) includes characters of many sexual orientations, and their romantic storylines include love triangles, casual dalliances, steady couples, and couples willing to invite in a third. While many of the physically intimate scenes are loving, some are rougher, including ones that cross lines of clear consent and introduce a level of violence that many young readers will not be ready for. The ending brings heartbreaking twists to prime readers for the trilogy’s conclusion.
A very full mixed bag. (map, list of elements) (Fantasy. 17-adult)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5665-4
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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