An unvarnished portrait of grief and healing; approach with care.
A teen struggles to cope with her younger sister’s death in the follow-up to Jude Banks, Superhero (2021).
Ever since her younger sister, Halley, died from a peanut allergy two years ago, 14-year-old Clementine Marsh has felt like the world outside is overwhelming and that she’s trapped in a snow globe. Her new high school is chaotic, and gossip has made her a target of bullying. Her best friend moved to Vermont and feels like a stranger. Worst of all, her widowed mother has fallen in love. How can Clementine cope with losing Halley when it feels like she’s losing her mom too? Clementine’s narrative, which drifts between past and present, candidly explores depression and grief. Unfortunately, some scenes, such as Clementine’s vividly recounted suicide attempt, risk triggering readers with similar struggles, and there are no mental health resources included. Realistically, Clementine’s path toward healing is not linear; hopeful moments alternate with physical and verbal outbursts and periods of inertia. Readers will root for Clementine as she learns to manage her emotions with help from a support group, though Hood’s dashing of potentially positive developments becomes emotionally taxing. Most secondary characters are lightly developed, but Clementine’s relationship with her mother—who remains steadily supportive amid her own grief, worry, and exhaustion—is touchingly three-dimensional. Clementine reads White; secondary characters bring some diversity.
An unvarnished portrait of grief and healing; approach with care. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780593094105
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Adequate heroic fantasy only for those who must have every girl-with-a-sword
A girl fighter fights evil in a midseries time filler.
Disfigured by scars and outed as a girl, superb sword fighter Alexa is King Damian's most valued guard. Though Damian relies on her completely as a soldier and adviser, the awkwardness between the pair encroaches on their every interaction. Alexa has told Damian she doesn't love him, convinced that a relationship would destroy her beloved king (she feels she’d be bad for him, for no apparent reason beyond her disfiguring scars). Every time she sees him, Alexa is struck with such blinding physical pain—in her chest, stomach, gut and skull—that readers might wonder if she should visit a doctor. A visit to the kingdom by villainous, alabaster-skinned desert people leaves the kingdom in danger from a wicked seductress and her brother, a malicious goon who tortures his own henchmen for kicks and giggles. Though the dastardly fiends don't appear to be dark sorcerers, they certainly have mysterious powers almost impossible to resist. Still, no dark magic or potential war with the Blevonese can distract Alexa from her Very Important Love Triangle with two bland blank slates.
Adequate heroic fantasy only for those who must have every girl-with-a-sword . (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-64474-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
Will appeal not only to psychological-thriller fans, but to those who want a little glamour, some A-list social politics and...
A 16-year-old Army brat, unpleasantly in the public eye, copes with grief over her dead mother and fears for her own mental health.
In this new series by the author of the Gallagher Girls books, Grace is sent to live with her grandfather, the United States ambassador to Adria. Trouble-prone Grace causes an international incident on her very first day. Besides, everybody in Adria thinks she's crazy; Grace has spent the last three years insisting she saw her mother murdered by a gruesomely scarred man, though all the evidence says it was an accident. Grace doubts herself when she sees evidence of sinister doings in Adria: conspirators in the palace, secret tunnels and—worst of all—the Scarred Man walking Adria's corridors of power. Though some of the local kids try to help, Grace hates being surrounded by the competent and attractive multinational kids of Embassy Row while she's heavily medicated, prone to self-harm, and too pale and blonde to be pretty. Grace's adventure waffles among spy thriller, an examination of grief and an exploration of mental illness. It rockets wildly to and fro; the setup for the inevitable second volume doesn't follow even slightly naturally from the mystery's conclusion. Still, the mix-and-match bucket of tropes creates a not-entirely-infelicitous goofy whole: Hallucinations, mean girls and kidnappings abound.
Will appeal not only to psychological-thriller fans, but to those who want a little glamour, some A-list social politics and a bit of high school nastiness mixed in with their suspense . (Thriller. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-65474-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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