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
Light and fluffy as new-fallen snow.
Written for teen girls, a choose-your-own-ending romance book.
It almost seems like a parlor trick; packed into 208 pages are 14 separate stories and 11 teenage boy characters, each a separate romantic lead. The book's protagonist is “you,” a 16-year-old girl who has discovered your boyfriend cheated on you. The setting is a ski resort where your family rented a chalet. Your seasoned-at-romance older sister, Angie, convinces you the way to move past the pain is to “find a boy, flirt, and kiss him.” When you and Angie hit the slopes, your first prospect is a cute boy by the ski lift who winks at you. From this point on in the book, readers are offered choices: They can continue to ski with Angie or jump to a designated page to pursue the chosen boy. Readers can continue to follow each boy's story path to its happy ending. Santopolo does a wondrous job creating 11 distinctly different characters with such limited time for development, and the dialogue is snappy and creative. There's no time for deep, thoughtful conversations between “you” and your potential suitor, and because of the limited plotline constraint, first base is sometimes reached with alarming dispatch. The complex construction of the book makes navigating a path back from one boy to a different romantic partner a challenge. But still, deliciously appealing fare for teenage girl readers.
Light and fluffy as new-fallen snow. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-14-751093-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Speak/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strong, painful and tender piece about wresting hope from the depths of despair.
Two sisters wrestle with guilt and fear after one kills the father who battered them.
Readers last saw 17-year-old Pattyn at the cliffhanger ending of Burned (2006), immediately after her beloved boyfriend and their unborn baby were killed in a car wreck. Stunned with grief and fury, and with nothing left to lose, Pattyn vowed to shoot her long-abusive father, whom she blamed for the accident. This much-desired sequel begins two weeks later—and Dad’s dead. Escaping town, Pattyn meets a warm, welcoming family of mostly undocumented farm laborers. They find her a ranch job, where she hides from law enforcement. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Jackie is stuck at home, narrating her own half of the story. Through free-verse poems thick with the weight of trauma, the shooting’s details emerge. A schoolmate raped Jackie; blaming Jackie, Dad broke her ribs and loosened her teeth; Pattyn’s gun stopped Dad forever. Now Pattyn faces “blood-caked nightmares,” while Jackie fights a mother and two LDS church leaders who insist she forget her rape. Waiting for the past to “tackle [them] from behind,” both girls struggle toward fragile new connections and inner strength. The lives of undocumented Americans, a renegade hate movement and a wild horse wary of trust are all organic to the plot.
A strong, painful and tender piece about wresting hope from the depths of despair. (author’s note) (Verse fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8328-6
Page Count: 560
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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