A middling SF novel that focuses more on teenage sex drives than plot.
Baynes’ YA SF novel brims with lust, love, and sentient plants.
Saad was born on The Human Race, a spaceship sent from Earth in response to a distress signal from a distant planet called Brimstone. Saad, Gibby (Saad’s crush), and the 70-plus other teenagers aboard have no real parents or family—they were all were test-tube babies, mostly raised by the bots on board the ship and trained by the crewmembers to help with daily tasks. Now 16, the teenagers are accustomed to the cavern The Human Racesank into upon landing eight years prior, and to the odd, moving vegetation that inhabits the planet. Other than the empty, ruined cities, there’s no evidence of the humanoid race that sent the distress signal but that’s, honestly, the least of Saad’s problems; he’s suddenly going through puberty. And he’s not the only one: Gibby soon follows, and the two teens become eager to explore each other’s budding bodies and desires. Unfortunately, the ship’s rules don’t allow them to touch one another. Both of them are interested in the strange plants in the cavern, called Flukes; they devise a plan to get assigned to study the empty cities and their strange plant life (Gibby is particularly sensitive to Flukes, and can actually communicate with the plants), thereby getting all the alone-time they want. But they quickly learn the Flukes are more sentient and aware than any of them had guessed (and there is evidence that something else is going on to trouble the crew, as media is censored and the ship is recalled earlier than planned, for mysterious reasons). The Flukes themselves and Gibby’s communing with them are fascinating story elements; unfortunately, Gibby and Saad’s near-constant state of desire steals focus from this narrative.
A middling SF novel that focuses more on teenage sex drives than plot.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2023
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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