Excellent characterization and a touching friendship mark this appealing Australian thriller. Thirteen-year-old Jackson and his widowed mother, Valerie, have moved to the suburbs to escape Valerie’s scary former boss. Ever since Valerie spotted drugs at the casino where she sang, she’s lived in fear. Jackson copes with the anxiety by obsessing about numbers. His narrative chapters alternate with those of Esmeralda, his new neighbor and romantic interest, an aspiring singer. Another neighbor and classmate, Asim, a Kurdish refugee, shares a moving friendship with Jackson of a kind rarely portrayed between boys in teen books. Both kind-hearted, they empathize with each other’s troubles and delight in similar interests. They also share a dangerous adventure when the casino boss sends a thug to intimidate Valerie. Music plays a major role throughout, from Esmeralda’s considerable talent to Valerie’s sometimes tedious riffs on rock history. The local bully and Asim, too coincidentally, are also talented musicians. Although Jackson and Esmeralda’s voices are often indistinguishable, they effectively pull the reader into their lives. The suspense builds toward a gripping climax, followed by a gratifying rock-and-roll wrap-up. (Fiction. 13-16)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8027-9660-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
Thrills without depth, purpose, or satisfaction.
A teen solves a mystery using information from paranormal seizures.
After Cassie’s father drowned in a boating accident, she had seizures, but she hasn’t had one in years—until her school bus crashes. Then they return, but they’re not really seizures: she appears to be unconscious, but her mind jumps into somebody else’s mind. She can’t control those she jumps into and doesn’t know their thoughts, but she sees and hears what they do from inside their heads. Separately, on an astral plane, she sees symbolic clues to two mysteries she’s trying to link and solve: who committed a recent hit-and-run in her Connecticut town and whether her former BFF, Amanda—in a coma from the bus wreck—has any connection to it. Terrifying scenes include being inside a skydiver’s mind as his parachute fails; being inside a rock star’s mind as she shoots heroin; and being inside a possible murderer’s mind while he’s trying to murder Cassie herself. Her narrative voice is breathless and saucy (“a skirt so short you can almost see Texas”); her casual appropriation, as a white American character, of “switshetshela,” the Xitsongan word for epilepsy (because “it sounds exotic. Okay, maybe not exotic. Just not so gross”), goes entirely unexamined. Moreover, the disability-as-magic trope is tired. Emotional healing supposedly happens, but it rings shallow.
Thrills without depth, purpose, or satisfaction. (Supernatural mystery. 14-16)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-929345-26-7
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Poisoned Pencil
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Nothing spectacular, but the movie’s many fans will have fun.
In this novelization of the 2004 movie of the same name, readers are treated to the film’s events from multiple characters’ viewpoints.
White 16-year-old American Cady Heron grew up home-schooled in “Africa,” where her researcher parents evidently studied both the Maasai and animal behavior. They’ve returned to the States, and Cady is off to public school. She’s nervous about the change but reassures herself. She survived the African wilderness; high school couldn’t be much worse. New pals—arty Janis and gay boy Damian—fill her in on the school’s hierarchy. The Plastics are the school royalty, led by cruel queen bee Regina George and her sycophants, ditzy but oddly insightful Gretchen and sweet but not-so-bright Karen. Regina pulls Cady into her inner circle, but when Cady winds up on the receiving end of Regina’s nastiness, Cady launches a revenge plan to take Regina down a few pegs. However, she risks losing herself in the process. Gretchen’s Valley girl–speak and Janis’ acerbic wit are the most notable voices in the alternating first-person narration, which also includes Cady, Regina, Damian, and others. Hilarious text messages, emails, Regina’s mother’s ridiculous to-do lists, and newspaper articles bring in minor characters’ perspectives. North Shore High is racially diverse, but each of the primary character-narrators is white.
Nothing spectacular, but the movie’s many fans will have fun. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-08756-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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