Trauma abounds in this earnest verse novel that ultimately—perhaps boldly—offers minimal consolation.
Tragedy turns a top basketball prospect toward a life of hard, hurt-filled choices—but it’s never too late to become more than our pain.
When her loving ex-con father is assassinated, Aaliyah Davis’ already tumultuous life in Buffalo, New York, is turned upside down. A star hooper, like her father before her, and an unrepentant tomboy, to the chagrin of her absentee mother, 16-year-old Aaliyah experiences the sort of trauma no one should have to but that is unfortunately all too common. Her story is presented here in raw, poignant verse with first-person adolescent lyricism. With basketball no longer an effective distraction from her growing anger, a budding relationship with a schoolmate who’s suffered similarly from gun violence quickly turns into an opportunity for revenge. Until a stint in juvenile detention that pointedly parallels her father’s incarceration, learning to trust the right people proves to be disastrously difficult for Aaliyah and many of the young people in this complicated story of loss, betrayal, and widespread neglect—but it’s a hard-earned lesson that ultimately sets her free. Accessible for reluctant readers, the attractive design and fluid writing style make this a broadly appealing work. Main characters are Black.
Trauma abounds in this earnest verse novel that ultimately—perhaps boldly—offers minimal consolation. (Verse novel. 12-17)Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-9785-9559-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging read for sports fans and romance lovers alike.
Elite competition and family legacy take center stage in this ice-rink romance.
To 16-year-old ice skater Adriana Russo, daughter of Olympic gold medalist parents, the spotlight is simply part of life at Boston’s prestigious, family-owned Kellynch Rink. Her older sister, Elisa, stars in a reality TV show with their dad and is on her way to compete in the Beijing Olympics. Maria, her younger sister, is embroiled in relationship drama with her figure skating partner, Charlie Monroe. Meanwhile, Adriana and her ice dancing partner, Brayden Elliott, are preparing for the Junior World Championships in Paris. Enter Freddie O’Connell, former crush, ice dance partner, and best friend, and Adriana has a lot more on her mind than perfecting her routine. Complicating things further is her fictitious romance with Brayden that is vaulting them to social media fame. Behind the glamour, though, is the overwhelming debt created by her father’s lavish spending since the death of her mother four years earlier and the pressure Adriana feels to help keep the family afloat financially. Strained family dynamics and setbacks on the ice add to the obstacles that threaten to distract Adriana from her goals. Woven throughout the story are behind-the-scenes looks into the world of competitive skating and the all-encompassing commitment required and physical demands the athletes face daily. Adriana and most other central characters read as White; Charlie and his family are Black.
An engaging read for sports fans and romance lovers alike. (Romance. 12-17)Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35036-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember.
Kai’s life is upended when his coastal village is devastated in Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami in this verse novel from an author who experienced them firsthand.
With his single mother, her parents, and his friend Ryu among the thousands missing or dead, biracial Kai, 17, is dazed and disoriented. His friend Shin’s supportive, but his intact family reminds Kai, whose American dad has been out of touch for years, of his loss. Kai’s isolation is amplified by his uncertain cultural status. Playing soccer and his growing friendship with shy Keiko barely lessen his despair. Then he’s invited to join a group of Japanese teens traveling to New York to meet others who as teenagers lost parents in the 9/11 attacks a decade earlier. Though at first reluctant, Kai agrees to go and, in the process, begins to imagine a future. Like graphic novels, today’s spare novels in verse (the subgenre concerning disasters especially) are significantly shaped by what’s left out. Lacking art’s visceral power to grab attention, verse novels may—as here—feel sparsely plotted with underdeveloped characters portrayed from a distance in elegiac monotone. Kai’s a generic figure, a coat hanger for the disaster’s main event, his victories mostly unearned; in striking contrast, his rural Japanese community and how they endure catastrophe and overwhelming losses—what they do and don’t do for one another, comforts they miss, kindnesses they value—spring to life.
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember. (author preface, afterword) (Verse fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53474-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
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