Despite its shortcomings, this important and timely novel is a painful, lovely exploration of mending a mother-daughter...
A mother and daughter with a strained relationship cope with the legacy of horrific violence.
Zara is the daughter of an interfaith marriage between her mostly secular parents: a Bosnian Muslim mother and white Catholic father. She is an ordinary American girl in many ways despite her fraught relationship with her traumatized mother—Zara knows that Nadja was a refugee, but her mother’s emotional distance has stopped her from learning the details of her past. An ISIS bombing at a Rhode Island farmers market leaves Zara wounded and her mother comatose but also opens up the path for Zara to finally understand her mother’s story. At the hospital she develops a close friendship with a spiritually seeking, biracial (Haitian and Irish) boy who is there visiting his grandmother. Interwoven chapters tell the story of Nadja in 1990s Bosnia, where she was an equally ordinary adolescent, treasuring mix tapes from her Serbian boyfriend. But the Bosnian War changes everything, and Nadja finds herself a survivor of genocide, having experienced crimes so horrific she’s blocked them out. Ethnic and religious conflict among modern Europeans contrasts sharply with racist Islamophobia in Zara’s contemporary New England. The search for faith and meaning pervades the story, but, disappointingly, the narrative too often filters spirituality through Western and Christian lenses. The long, complex history of the South Slavs is also overly simplified.
Despite its shortcomings, this important and timely novel is a painful, lovely exploration of mending a mother-daughter relationship. (author’s note, bibliography, glossary) (Fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-17554-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
Engaging characters and appealing, nostalgic artwork make for a satisfying read.
In this series opener, 17-year-old Alaskan Waverly Lyons goes to spend two months in the small coastal town of Holden, Florida, with her aunt Rachel.
At first, Waverly has difficulty adapting to her new environment, but she begins to befriend some of the locals, finds a job, and meets her aloof neighbor, Blake Hamilton, a lifeguard with his own yet-to-be-revealed issues. Marchant excels in capturing themes of self-discovery and budding romantic tension between the two white-presenting leads. Waverly’s journey of growth feels natural and relatable, with internal monologue appearing in rectangular text bubbles and accompanying the dialogue and external action. Joaquin’s artwork enhances the storytelling through its warm and inviting color palette, which utilizes both soft pastels and vibrant tropical tones to create an immersive atmosphere. Blurring simulates motion and movement. While the plot follows familiar genre tropes, the small-town setting enhances the charm and brings echoes of simpler times to this contemporary tale. The character designs are expressive, capturing subtle emotions effectively through body language, while the scenic backgrounds bring the coastal setting to life. The paneling is well-paced, ensuring smooth transitions between comedic, romantic, and emotional moments. This graphic novel, originally released on WEBTOON, was based on Marchant’s Wattpad novel of the same name, and the story has also been made into a film.
Engaging characters and appealing, nostalgic artwork make for a satisfying read. (Graphic romance. 13-17)Pub Date: July 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781546175247
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Though no punches are pulled about the unimaginable atrocity of the death camps, a life-affirming history
A teenage girl imprisoned in Auschwitz keeps the secret library of a forbidden school.
Dita Adlerova, 14, is confined in the notorious extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Compared to her fellow inmates, Dita’s relatively lucky. The several thousand residents of camp BIIb are inexplicably allowed to keep their own clothing, their hair, and, most importantly, their children. A young man named Fredy Hirsch maintains a school in BIIb, right under the noses of the Nazis. In Fredy’s classroom, Dita discovers something wonderful: a dangerous collection of eight smuggled books. The tale, based on the real life of Dita Polach Kraus and the events of 1944 and 1945, intertwines the stories of several real people: Dita, Fredy, several little-known war heroes, even a grim cameo from Anne and Margot Frank. Holocaust-knowledgeable readers will have suspicions about how many characters will die horribly (spoiler alert: this is Auschwitz). Yet somehow, myriad storylines told by multiple narrators offer compelling narrative tension. Why does BIIb exist? Will Rudi and Alice have a romance? What’s Fredy’s secret? Will Dr. Mengele subject Dita to his grotesque experiments? Dita’s matter-of-fact perspective, set in a slow build from BIIb to the chaotic starvation of the war’s end, both increases the horror and makes it bearable to read.
Though no punches are pulled about the unimaginable atrocity of the death camps, a life-affirming history . (Historical fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62779-618-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
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