A gentle and compelling coming-of-age story.
In Bryan’s debut YA novel, a teenage boy adjusts to life on his grandfather’s ranch and takes a stand against animal cruelty.
Matt Barrett, a 14-year-old, finds himself on a bus from Chicago to Los Angeles; sent away by his alcoholic mother and her abusive boyfriend, Matt goes to stay with his grandfather Silas Phillips and help out on his ranch. Unhappy even before he arrives, Matt soon grows utterly miserable. Silas is stern and unaffectionate and puts him to work mucking out stables. Matt’s days are long and tiring, and there’s no phone reception. His only true friend on the ranch is the housekeeper Esmerelda Montoya, whose cooking enchants everyone and whose Native American Tongva heritage seems to afford her a deep connection to the land. As the weeks pass, Matt starts to feel more at home and bonds with some of the horses. Working as a stable hand, he is assigned to help Robert Sinclair, a callous trainer who leases barn space at the ranch. Sinclair cares only for money, and employs brutal, illegal practices when preparing his horses for show events. Matt is shocked, but the ranch is in financial trouble and Silas doesn’t want to hear about what Sinclair is doing. Can Matt end the horses’ abuse without ruining his grandfather’s livelihood? The prose is straightforward but elegant (“He stared at the traffic. It flowed like the liquid mercury in Mr. Rocker’s science class, cascading down the pass in its shiny liquid form, fast-moving, unstoppable, poisonous quicksilver”), serving both to relate the story and to capture the simplicity of life on a working ranch. Matt makes for a relatable protagonist: His family life is tough, and he is justifiably self-pitying until the change in his environment brings out the best in him. The plot moves slowly but unfolds in a natural, rather appealing fashion; Bryan takes time to describe things like different horse gaits and to detail the building of a sweat lodge to build the novel’s world, grounding the narrative in a sense of place and adding weight to the revelations of animal cruelty. Readers both teenage and adult, horse-loving and horse-ignorant, should find themselves heavily invested in Matt’s life on the ranch.
A gentle and compelling coming-of-age story.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1639887286
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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