An involving, if slightly uneven, follow-up to Printz Honor winner Please Ignore Vera Dietz (2010).
“If you were going to commit suicide, what method would you choose?” This smart-aleck survey question developed for a social-studies assignment sends the cruelly mis-named Lucky Linderman’s life straight into the sewer. Misunderstood by school administrators, tormented by the school’s bully-in-chief Nader McMillan, fretted over by his ineffective parents, Lucky launches the ultra-stoic “Operation Don’t Smile Ever” to protect himself, but privately he seethes with rage and sadness. In his dreams—the only place he can exercise any authority or skill—Lucky stages bold, elaborate rescue missions to bring his Vietnam-era POW/MIA grandfather home. After Nader assaults Lucky at the community pool, Lucky and his swimming-obsessed mom decamp to Arizona to visit relatives and recuperate. Readers will fall hard for Lucky’s aching, disgusted, hopeful and triumphant voice, but this otherwise deeply realistic story falters a bit whenever elements of magical realism intrude. The titular Greek chorus of ants, a shape-shifting facial scab, the items that accompany Lucky home from his dreams: None of them quite mesh with the story, instead forcing readers to question Lucky’s sanity when they should be completely on his side.
Readers who look beyond these problems will find a resonant, uplifting story about not just getting through, but powering through, the tough times. (Fiction. 15 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-12928-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
PROFILES
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues...
He’s in remission from the osteosarcoma that took one of his legs. She’s fighting the brown fluid in her lungs caused by tumors. Both know that their time is limited.
Sparks fly when Hazel Grace Lancaster spies Augustus “Gus” Waters checking her out across the room in a group-therapy session for teens living with cancer. He’s a gorgeous, confident, intelligent amputee who always loses video games because he tries to save everyone. She’s smart, snarky and 16; she goes to community college and jokingly calls Peter Van Houten, the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, her only friend besides her parents. He asks her over, and they swap novels. He agrees to read the Van Houten and she agrees to read his—based on his favorite bloodbath-filled video game. The two become connected at the hip, and what follows is a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive Van Houten to their hilariously flirty repartee, readers will swoon on nearly every page. Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire. He takes on Big Questions that might feel heavy-handed in the words of any other author: What do oblivion and living mean? Then he deftly parries them with humor: “My nostalgia is so extreme that I am capable of missing a swing my butt never actually touched.” Dog-earing of pages will no doubt ensue.
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues to make it through Hazel and Gus’ poignant journey. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-47881-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sweet and healing.
In this follow-up to Some Girls Do (2021), Ruby and Morgan try to maintain a long-distance relationship—but it forces them to face the question of what matters most to them.
The girls are still very much in love with each other, but as Morgan heads into her second semester of college four hours’ drive from their hometown where Ruby is studying automotive technical sciences at the community college, they face challenges. They’re starting to dread all the additional hurdles that make it so difficult to see one another, from busy schedules to transportation issues. As the semester progresses, new obstacles emerge, like a chance for Ruby to compete on the reality TV show Mastermind Mechanics over spring break and the possibility of a summer internship for Morgan. Both opportunities sound perfect on paper, but they would mean even more time apart for the couple. Ultimately, the girls must decide whether these dreams are worth putting their relationship on hold for—or if they can try to have it all. The long inner monologues at times slow the narrative, but the alternating first-person point-of-view chapters offer a complex view of relationship challenges. Ruby’s arcs with her mother and stepfather are especially touching and well-developed. The narrative includes enough context that it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. Morgan, who’s a lesbian, and Ruby, who’s “attracted to every gender,” both present white.
Sweet and healing. (Romance. 15-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9798217112555
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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