Despite its genuinely gorgeous cover and illustrations, this story and its characters never come to life on the page. Twelve-year-old Polly loves the woods around her Idaho home, where her dad has moved to a cabin and her grandmother Baba gathers wild plants for healing. Polly’s older sister Bree, deep into drugs and boys, disappears, and over the winter Polly and Baba leave food and clothing for her in a secluded part of the forest called Girlwood. Polly has a lot to cope with: mean girls at school, her best friend’s betrayal, her parents’ separation and the developer who plans to bulldoze the forest to build a gated community. There is way too much telling rather than showing and an overabundance of preaching about plant life and ecology, all of it overlaid with Polly’s ability, never fully integrated into the story, to see people’s auras and the wood fairies of her father’s stories. The Lessons are writ large, but the tale itself is a wisp writ small. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: May 19, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-618-88390-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
A suspenseful page-turner.
A paranoia-driven debut novel about a relationship twisted by obsession.
Logan struggles to move on after the death of his great love, Sophie. All he can do is go through the motions until he meets Delilah, a new senior who strongly resembles Sophie. Revived, Logan’s obsession grows as he stalks Delilah online and in real life. Meanwhile, Delilah—whose father died in a tragic accident—feels crushed by her mother’s abusive police detective boyfriend. Just when something happens to remove Brandon from their lives and she thinks everything might be turning around, Logan makes his move. As their relationship develops, Logan’s control over Delilah tightens, and dark secrets and violent decisions send both characters into a complex, dangerous spiral. At one point, as she thinks about her mother’s previous relationship and her own, Delilah’s web search about stalkers leads her to a description of erotomania. Set against a Northern California private school backdrop, the sensational plot is riddled with twists that come at a furious pace. Chapters alternate between Logan’s and Delilah’s perspectives, providing insight into their motives as well as shifting feelings of revulsion and admiration for each. The drama builds to a shocking, albeit abrupt, ending. Delilah is the stronger, more compelling protagonist when compared to Logan’s less nuanced development. Sophie was Japanese American, and Delilah is biracial with a Chinese Singaporean dad and White American mom; Logan is assumed White.
A suspenseful page-turner. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72821-516-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Moving easily between cartoons and painterly black-and-white illustration, this epistolary novel of a young teen's reinvention of self is subtle and effective. As he's stuck in his brother's shadow and in the middle of his alcoholic parents' unhappy relationship, it's little surprise that when the breakup of his family necessitates a move to a new school, the protagonist decides to become “Happyface.” Embracing lighthearted goofiness, he hopes to banish his former self—an artistic loner. At first, this seems to work: He finds friends and dates a girl on whom he has nursed a long crush. Eventually, though, he must find a way to integrate his true self with this invented persona. Poignantly real journal entries, e-mails and chat sessions allow readers to see into Happyface's world, and many will identify with his yearning for supposed normalcy. Though the catalyst for his metamorphosis is so understated that it's possible some may miss it altogether and be a bit puzzled later in the story, this is a minor detail in an otherwise engaging and absolutely heartfelt tale. (Fiction. 12 & up)
Pub Date: March 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-04100-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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