A swoonworthy romance that doesn’t really need the promised thrills.
After witnessing the aftermath of a murder, a girl assumes a false identity to hide from the drug cartel that wants her dead.
Estella Goodwinn comes home one night to find her drug-addicted mother passed out and one of her dealers shot dead. She implicates Danny Balando, a major player in a drug cartel, whom she sees fleeing the scene. She, her boyfriend, and her mother are swiftly placed into witness protection. Estella’s whisked away to Thunder Basin, Nebraska, a town that couldn’t possibly be farther away, culturally, from her home of Philadelphia. Now, she’s Stella Gordon, living with a retired cop as a foster child. The transition is painful; she can’t contact her boyfriend and is completely out of her element. Enter handsome country-boy Chet Falconer, and suddenly things are looking up. Stella initially rebels but quickly sees that Thunder Basin offers welcome stability. But the threats she left behind eventually manifest; a local baseball hero beloved by the community knows Stella’s hiding something, and it’s more than just her secret identity. Though the book is billed as a thriller, Stella’s time in Thunder Basin is actually all simmering summer love and coming into her own. Readers won’t mind—they’ll be too engrossed by Stella’s steady, although reluctant, fall into the arms of charming Chet.
A swoonworthy romance that doesn’t really need the promised thrills. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2491-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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