A slow start may deter some, but sophisticated readers who stick with the story will find a thoughtful search for closure...
Emmy sees dead people—but not the one she really wants to see.
It’s been one year since Emmy’s best friend, Kim, succumbed to her congenital heart disease while they were both in eighth grade. Before her death, Kim had made Emmy promise to contact her on important dates. Now that the anniversary of Kim’s death approaches, Emmy has been seeing, communicating with and even helping other recently deceased individuals navigate their transitions to death. So why can’t she find Kim? Chapters with different typefaces alternate between Emmy’s current, grief-stricken state and events leading up to Kim’s death, most notably Kim’s interest in a supposed medium touring their Las Vegas–area community. Although the quiet novel is a traditional prose narrative told from Emmy’s perspective, ample white space occasionally gives the story the look and feel of a verse novel. As she reconciles her feelings for the once popular and beautiful Kim, overweight Emmy also confronts such issues as self-image, bullying, the growing pains of adolescent friendships and first kisses.
A slow start may deter some, but sophisticated readers who stick with the story will find a thoughtful search for closure and acceptance. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3739-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama
An illegitimate girl who hopes to find her creative passion may be connected to another kingdom’s magical history.
At 10, white, orphaned Brienna was brought to Magnalia House. For the last seven years she’s studied to become an arden, an apprentice passion, with the goal of finding her patron. The arden-sisters study art, dramatics, music, wit, and knowledge; Brienna, who has no true vocation, has eccentrically studied in all the fields. Though she doesn’t truly belong among the talented (and somewhat racially diverse) noble girls of Magnalia House, they are her beloved friends. Perhaps once she’s passioned, she can even act on her romantic feelings for the white knowledge master. But Brienna’s having strange visions lately; could they be ancestral memories of an unknown forbear from the neighboring country? What with romance, jealousy, family drama, betrayals, ancient magical history, and characters with multiple secret identities, there’s a nigh-constant pitch of throbbing…well, passion. A voice is like “tamed thunder,” and hair is like “a stream of silver.” Malapropisms abound (“punctures of laughter”; “her beauty warbled by the mullioned windows”). Oddly, most of the shocking revelations of back story are openly detailed in the lengthy family trees at the novel’s opening.
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-247134-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
This riveting debut opens with seventh-grader Robbie Thompson locked in solitary confinement at Great Oaks School (or Prison, as Robbie refers to it), where he’s forced to meet required behavioral expectations to gain even basic needs. Readers soon learn that he’s been placed at the “end of the line” after violent outbursts at four other alternative schools—and that he killed his friend Ryan. Short, quick-paced chapters, some only one page long, alternate between Robbie’s time in school/prison and past events that led up to Ryan’s death. There are no black-and-white issues here; Ryan is not a likable kid. After Robbie, a respectful and diligent son and student whose favorite pastime is building a model town with his Uncle Grant, stands up to the bullying Ryan receives on his first day in their sixth grade, Ryan ingratiates himself with Robbie’s family. While Robbie’s parents see an impoverished boy who lives with his elderly grandparents, Robbie realizes that Ryan is evasive, manipulative and a liar. Adding to his growing hatred is a (little overblown) tyrant of a teacher who wrongfully casts Robbie as the troublemaker of the class. A demanding Great Oaks leader, group therapy with teens years ahead of him and analogies to Uncle Grant’s difficult choices as a soldier in Iraq help Robbie find responsibility and acceptance. A thought-provoking look at culpability and grief. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2287-6
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
