The story is suspenseful, with excellent pacing, self-aware humor, and a twist that Hartinger pulls off as well as the best...
Anyone who’s ever watched a horror movie knows: don’t go into the woods.
Rob adores his boyfriend, Liam, but is having trouble getting along with Liam’s best friend, party-girl Mia, and her handsome, troubled boyfriend, Galen. Rob makes some unwise decisions to get along, but the most dangerous is going with them to a remote cabin on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Hartinger gleefully piles up the horror-movie clichés. Along the way, they encounter a menacing old woman carrying a crossbow, and she’s far from happy to see Mia. After the drive along muddy back roads, Mia realizes the woman is angry that her family has sold land to clear-cutters, ruining property values. The teens make the best of it with skinny-dipping, drinking, and a game of “Three Truths and a Lie.” Mia reveals a disturbing secret, which she says is a lie, but Rob is unsettled. Then the outhouse is knocked over and their gas tank punctured, all after their satellite phone has disappeared. It’s not long before the paranoia spirals until they all suspect one another, and not everyone makes it out alive. Though the cast is not particularly diverse racially (Galen’s “golden-brown” skin notwithstanding, there’s no solid indication that these teens are anything but white), placing a couple of gay boys at the center of a psychological thriller is a refreshing spin on a very old trope.
The story is suspenseful, with excellent pacing, self-aware humor, and a twist that Hartinger pulls off as well as the best slasher films. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4960-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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