A few great moments shine in an otherwise uneven book.
A troubled teen gets a second chance at life and another chance to fix things with the girl of his dreams in Swann’s young adult romance.
Asher Jacobs feels alone. He’s mostly ignored by his divorced parents (and his dad is planning on moving across the country), and he had a falling out with Grace King, his crush and longtime friend. He develops drug and alcohol dependency and has a casual affair with a troubled girl named Vikki. He meets an angel of death named Kali who takes an interest in him and warns him not to go to the old quarry where he likes to hang out. Not long after this first encounter, he brushes with death again when Vikki feigns throwing herself off the side of the quarry; he runs after her (not heeding Kali’s warning), soon finding himself dangling off the edge of a cliff. As Asher works to tackle his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and he and Grace become closer, fate threatens to pull the pair apart. Swann has a talent for vividly imagining the world of an alienated teenage boy, and the glimmers of hope she gives him are completely apt. Her prose, from the opening line, “I had a date with a death angel once,” to one devastating three-word chapter toward the end of the book, is deftly crafted and engaging—perfect for young adult readers ready to be immersed in a serious work of fiction. The narrative, however, is not without its defects. Asher’s road to recovery, while true to the nonlinear nature of overcoming alcoholism, drags for most of the book and can still be a chore to read, while some of the twists in the end don’t feel especially earned. This is a serviceable romance about redemption, but there are certainly other novels that tackle the same themes with a tighter plot.
A few great moments shine in an otherwise uneven book.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2022
ISBN: 9781509244164
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987
ISBN: 1416925082
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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