A fairy-tale retelling that’s both beautiful and brutal.
This new take on “Beauty and the Beast” puts teen girls at the forefront.
Marie Michaud sells homemade perfumes at the town market, saving up for a dowry for her younger sister, Ama. But select bottles are enhanced with honeysuckle and given only to Ama’s prey. Last year, Marie’s more beautiful sister was sold to the wealthy LaClaire family to work off the debts of the girls’ father. Fifteen-year-old Ama returned half-girl, half-beast, and now Marie helps her sister find and mark men who won’t be missed during Ama’s monthly transformation. But when a small boy is found dead in the square—younger and bearing completely different wounds than Ama’s usual prey—Marie seeks to both protect Ama from unjust punishment and others from her increasingly hungry sister. Marie offers her services to the remaining LaClaire family members—young Lucien, who suffers from consumption, and Lucien’s handsome older brother, Sebastian, who’s struggling to manage the townspeople’s gossip after his parents’ mysterious deaths during Ama’s tenure as a servant—in hopes of finding Madame LaClaire’s spell book and curing Ama once and for all. Though the story tends to get bogged down in details and backstory, Panin's debut features rich, complex teen characters, all fighting to be understood within the limits of their small, closed-minded town. Most characters in this fantasy French setting default to White; Sebastian and Lucien are mixed-race (their mother came from Martinique and is cued as Black).
A fairy-tale retelling that’s both beautiful and brutal. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5265-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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