Dove “Birdie” Randolph is a 16-year-old black girl working to figure out family, love, and what she really wants in life.
The Chicago high school sophomore lives with her mother and father in their apartment above her mother’s hair salon; her sister, Mimi, is away at college. Dove’s parents have her on a strict academic schedule, and Dove faces a summer constrained by rules with little room for socializing except with her best friend, Lazarus “Laz” Ramos. Recently Dove began sneaking out to see Booker Stratton, a boy she’s grown to really like but who has a past her parents would not approve of. Into this setting comes her Aunt Carlene, her mom’s sister, who has been rarely seen and even less frequently spoken about. Carlene, an addict who has spent much of her life in and out of rehab, moves in with Dove and her parents, bringing tension into the family, although Dove soon develops a warm connection with her. The exposure of a family secret threatens to derail the tenuous balance. Colbert (Finding Yvonne, 2018, etc.) pens an emotionally gripping tale about family and young love and how they can be your entire world while still being worlds apart. The treatment of topics such as the impact of addiction, racial profiling and discrimination, and sexuality (Mimi and Laz are queer) is skillful and will resonate.
Moving and memorable. (Fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-44856-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises.
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What would you do with one day left to live?
In an alternate present, a company named Death-Cast calls Deckers—people who will die within the coming day—to inform them of their impending deaths, though not how they will happen. The End Day call comes for two teenagers living in New York City: Puerto Rican Mateo and bisexual Cuban-American foster kid Rufus. Rufus needs company after a violent act puts cops on his tail and lands his friends in jail; Mateo wants someone to push him past his comfort zone after a lifetime of playing it safe. The two meet through Last Friend, an app that connects lonely Deckers (one of many ways in which Death-Cast influences social media). Mateo and Rufus set out to seize the day together in their final hours, during which their deepening friendship blossoms into something more. Present-tense chapters, short and time-stamped, primarily feature the protagonists’ distinctive first-person narrations. Fleeting third-person chapters give windows into the lives of other characters they encounter, underscoring how even a tiny action can change the course of someone else’s life. It’s another standout from Silvera (History Is All You Left Me, 2017, etc.), who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived.
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises. (Speculative fiction. 13-adult).Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-245779-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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A resounding success.
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This literary DeLorean transports readers into the past, where they hope, dream, and struggle alongside beloved characters from Thomas’ The Hate U Give (2017).
The tale begins in 1998 Garden Heights, when Starr’s parents, Maverick and Lisa, are high school seniors in love and planning for the future. Thomas proves Game of Thrones–esque in her worldbuilding ability, deepening her landscape without sacrificing intimacy or heart. Garden Heights doesn’t contain dragons or sorcerers, but it’s nevertheless a kingdom under siege, and the contemporary pressures its royalty faces are graver for the realness that no magic spell can alleviate. Mav’s a prince whose family prospects are diminished due to his father’s federally mandated absence. He and his best friend, King, are “li’l homies,” lower in status and with everything to prove, especially after Mav becomes a father. In a world where masculinity and violence are inextricably linked to power, the boys’ very identities are tied to the fathers whose names they bear and with whose legacies they must contend. Mav laments, “I ain’t as hard as my pops, ain’t as street as my pops,” but measuring up to that legacy ends in jail or the grave. Worthy prequels make readers invest as though meeting characters for the first time; here they learn more about the intricate hierarchies and alliances within the King Lord gang and gain deeper insight into former ancillary characters, particularly Mav’s parents, King, and Iesha. Characters are Black.
A resounding success. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-284671-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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