Gabriel McCloud, an alcoholic from a family of losers, is dead at 18, an ``inevitable'' end met when he slammed his truck into a tree. Coming in after this grisly moment, readers share other characters' reactions to Gabe's death—and learn why the violent end of a troublemaking McCloud was not so expected after all. Girlfriend Jennie literally goes to the edge of a cliff, where she awaits the tide to sweep away her pain and the baby within her. Teacher Carolyn Sanders mourns the loss of a bright student done in by an abusive background. Gabe's father, remorseful for mistakes of his own that led his son to self- destruct, teeters on the edge of losing his two-year, self- enforced sobriety. Through such perspectives, a complex portrait emerges: a young man with potential who could have conquered his past with the one break no one gave him. The events unfold in orderly fashion, each chapter featuring the distinctive first- person reflections of one of many characters, transporting readers into the heart of this multifaceted tragedy. Provocative suspense of a different color—not whodunit, or why, or how, but what now? (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-31772-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992
Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small for her age, bright 14-year-old Sylvie is only just experiencing the first longings of puberty. Sylvie hopes her lifelong friendship with Carl will blossom into something more like what her bold new friend, alpha girl Miranda, means when she says “boyfriend.” But Carl’s object of desire is a boy at his new school, a soccer star on whom he has an intense crush, and he is moody and withdrawn with Sylvie. Wilson competently gets inside the world of younger teens and displays her usual sure hand with details (Miranda’s cheerful theft of her parents’ vodka, the quirks and foibles of parents), but there’s some predictability to the plot. Paul is furious when he discovers Carl’s feelings for him, and Carl takes out his subsequent humiliation on the Glass House sanctuary he and Sylvie have shared for years. Miranda’s audacious response to Carl’s classmates’ homophobia is a bright spot at the end, as is Sylvie’s recognition of the value of simple friendship; Carl’s parents’ bland suggestion that he might be going through a phase seems awkward and unnecessary. Mixed, but diverting. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59643-242-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
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