An emotionally immediate yet ethereal and darkly fantastical tale woven through with threads that ring all too true.
For a traumatized, lonely girl, fantasy and reality become difficult to distinguish.
Eight years ago, Destiny found the lines blurred between her real life and Arantha, the fairy-tale world she created as an escape from her mother’s substance abuse. Now her mother is newly sober, but 17-year-old Destiny has little faith that it will last; she already carries much emotional damage. Things seemed to be heading in the right direction with a summer job and whirlwind romance with college football hopeful Ryan, until Ryan called off the relationship Destiny thought was fated. Heartbroken and miserable, Destiny finds that her art is pulling her back into Arantha. The reappearance of her long-lost imaginary friend, Tosh, precedes the shocking discovery that she’s pregnant. A split-second lie meant to buy her a moment to process this shock snowballs as Destiny tries to outrun inevitabilities in Arantha and the real world. Destiny’s fantasy world is grand and magical while her daily life is gritty and often unpleasant; Rissi draws both with care and precision. The complexity of the subject matter is matched by the delicacy of the language, and the raw authenticity of the characters’ feelings makes for a breathless, mesmerizing tale that’s presented with care and awareness of its sensitive topics. Destiny and Ryan are cued white, and there’s some racial diversity among the well-crafted secondary cast.
An emotionally immediate yet ethereal and darkly fantastical tale woven through with threads that ring all too true. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593859827
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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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