If readers can suspend some disbelief and simply roll with what’s offered, perhaps this will work for them.
A faked allergy spins wildly out of control in this prosaic graphic novel.
Starting at a new school, sophomore Sadie Wildhack is led by first-day jitters to concoct one whopper of a lie: She informs her classmates that she is gravely allergic to peanuts. Her feigned condition serves as the perfect segue into new conversations, and it eventually helps Sadie find friends and even a handsome boyfriend named Zoo. As most lies do, Sadie’s catches up with her, and predictably, she is forced to confess to her prolonged pretense. While the theme of the story is universal (lying is bad!), here it is sadly pedestrian in its execution, verging on didactic. The notion of faking a peanut allergy feels juvenile, something better suited to a middle schooler than a high school student. Despite this, Hoppe's artistic style helps add some interest. Sadie's feelings of unease are visually palpable, evinced through her always-red shirt (and many wardrobe changes) set adrift against a backdrop of blacks, whites and grays. With its odd subject, this at times feels like an after school special, trying to show how relevant and edgy it could be, and is reminiscent of the failed Minx line from DC Comics.
If readers can suspend some disbelief and simply roll with what’s offered, perhaps this will work for them. (Graphic fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86590-9
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A complex story sidelined by a confusingly executed paranormal element.
Four queer teenagers are stuck in an infinite time loop that taps into their collective worst moment.
The question of what really happened to Charlotte Vanderheyden at the Lilies Society’s Founder’s Night initiation lies at the heart of this convoluted mystery, which is told from the perspectives of four Archwell Academy seniors: Rory Archwell, Blythe Harris, Veró Martín, and Drew Simmons. A lockdown drill finds the four teenagers trapped together in a closet and caught in a time loop that forces them to relive the initiation over and over again, even though neither Drew nor Veró are Lilies. Further complicating matters, each one is holding on to secrets of their own. Rory and Blythe, legacy students and former lovers, played key roles at the initiation. Charlotte and Drew (who uses they/them pronouns) were roommates. Veró is an activist who creates radical disruption under the persona of Malcriada, and her most recent artwork portrays Chancellor Archwell (yes, Rory’s mother) as a TERF. The frostiness among the racially diverse group thaws as they band together and discover that they share a common—and disturbing—history. The more they reveal, the closer they get to discovering what really happened to Charlotte—and maybe even other initiates. While the story’s underlying premise importantly confronts generational trauma and repeating patterns, and the explorations of race, queerness, and exclusion are thoughtful, the novel struggles with the tenuous portrayal of time looping.
A complex story sidelined by a confusingly executed paranormal element. (Paranormal mystery. 13-18)Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780063318199
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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