Unexceptional but solid.
When a popular high-school girl disappears while delivering pizza at her part-time job, her two fellow employees and classmates try to figure out what happened.
Drew Lyle takes the call, Kayla Cutler delivers the pizza, but the man ordering it wants to know if the girl who drives the Mini Cooper—that’s Gabie Klug—will be the delivery girl. When Kayla doesn’t return, Drew calls the police and the mystery kicks in. Who was the man; what happened to Kayla; why did he ask about Gabie; and, as time begins to pass, is Kayla still alive? Neither Drew nor Gabie, who go to the same high school as Kayla but are work rather than social friends, knows anything, but they are determined to find out. The thriller is narrated using a collage technique. Interspersed with the kids’ and perpetrator’s first-person accounts are police reports, 911 transcripts, webpages, interviews, etc., which add interest and texture to what otherwise would be a straight genre tale. The police seem amazingly obtuse, Gabie’s belief that Kayla is alive is given no realistic, clue-based hook and the third quarter has some pacing problems. Still, Gabie and Drew’s budding relationship is believable, and it has a strong wingding climax followed by a feel-good ending.
Unexceptional but solid. (Mystery. 12 & up)Pub Date: April 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9262-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family...
Placing her daughter for adoption left a hole in Grace’s heart; her adoptive parents can’t fill it, and her birth mother’s unreachable—then Grace learns she has siblings.
Maya, 15, a year younger than Grace, was adopted by wealthy parents 13 months before their biological daughter, Lauren, arrived. Joaquin, nearly 18, a survivor of 17 failed foster-care placements and one failed adoption, is troubled when his current foster parents express a wish to adopt him. Grace reaches out, and the siblings soon bond. All—Maya especially, standing out in a family of redheads—are grateful to meet others with dark hair (only Joaquin identifies not as white but Latino) and weird food preferences (French fries with mayo). Still, each keeps secrets. Maya discusses her girlfriend but not her mother’s secret drinking; Joaquin edits out his failed adoption; Grace, her pregnancy and daughter’s birth. It hurts that her siblings have zero interest in tracking down the mom who gave them away, yet Grace persists. Chapters alternate through their third-person perspectives, straightforward structure and syntax delivering accessibility without sacrificing nuance or complexity. Family issues are neither airbrushed nor oversimplified (as the ambiguous title suggests). These are multifaceted characters, shaped by upbringing as well as their genes, in complicated families. Absent birthparents matter, as do bio siblings: when their parents separate, Lauren fears Maya will abandon her for her “real” siblings.
From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family gets it right. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233062-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Thrilling, timely, and terrific.
Tragedy and heroism interweave in a story about revolution, resistance, and beautiful queer love.
After the devastating ending to We Set the Dark on Fire (2019), Carmen Santos, no longer the Segunda to Mateo Garcia, Medio’s most powerful heir, is on the run toward the La Voz headquarters. Carmen used to be one of the resistance’s most well-respected members, but after years away on undercover assignment, she finds the fabled El Buitre’s wavering leadership has taken a new, hazardous direction. Proving that her allegiance to the cause remains as strong as ever is more difficult than expected, her heart torn between her beliefs and Dani, the girl she has fallen in love with but doesn’t know yet if she can fully trust. Shifting perspective and setting to Carmen and the La Voz camp (after the first novel centered Dani and the capital) is a bold choice that ultimately pans out as readers are rewarded with Carmen’s strong, determined voice and Mejia’s lush writing depicting the complexities of the ongoing fight against oppression in a divided, Latinx-inspired world. Carmen’s divided heart rings true, her daring actions meeting deadly consequences that realistically intensify the narrative without losing track of what the fight is all about: equality for all. A second—and final—volume that not only surpasses the accomplishments of its celebrated predecessor, but takes it to a higher, brighter level.
Thrilling, timely, and terrific. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-269134-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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