Risqué adult fare in teen drag.
Three St. Louis teens, half siblings conceived by donor insemination, embark on a summer road trip in 2008 to find their shared biological father.
Trying to track down her biological father, budding musician and songwriter KT learns she owes her existence not to her mother’s ex-husband, who left before KT’s birth, but to donor 806, selected on the basis of his Cryosperm profile (Harvard degree), who’s elected to remain anonymous. Using a donor-sibling registry, KT locates two half brothers among her classmates: Gabe, a nerdy amateur magician with allergies, and Jesse, a handsome, popular athlete. Gabe recently learned of his DI conception. Jesse was told early. With his lesbian moms splitting up, Jesse hopes his bio dad might offer new options. After a setback, the three head out on a wild quest featuring lucky, if unlikely, coincidences, including clerical and spelling errors. Settings include the sperm bank, a car wash/brothel, a seedy casino, and a celebrity golf tournament to aid people with color blindness. Like a TV sitcom, the plot relies on titillating sexual innuendo (DI mechanics are played for laughs) and exaggerated characterization. Clichés and cultural stereotypes abound. The white teens’ discovery that 806 is African-American, to everyone’s dismay, is wince-inducing. The satire of celebrity vanity and self-absorption is funny (the author’s an accomplished lyricist, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) but tangential to the plot.
Risqué adult fare in teen drag. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-939100-14-6
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
With a refreshingly original concept, this substantial fantasy, the first in a duology, is an undeniable page-turner
In Tiny Pretty Things co-author Clayton’s solo debut, beauty comes at a price.
On their joint 16th birthday, Camellia and her five sisters are sent out to restore beauty to Orléans, where everybody is born gray and ugly. They’ve been training for this their whole lives. As Belles, the sisters can use their magic to transform the citizens of Orléans from their original states. For the right price, Belles can grant any desired look. When Camellia secures the coveted spot of Her Majesty’s favorite, it seems as if her dreams have come true. As the most powerful, sought-out Belle, she is in charge of the royal family’s looks. However, the princess is insatiable in her quest for beauty and will do anything to get it—even if it means endangering the Belles and the kingdom—and Camellia may be the only one who can stop her. Not only that, but Camellia finds herself slowly uncovering the secrets of the Belles’ origin, and it’s not as pretty as she was taught. With wonderfully descriptive language, Clayton builds a grand and lavish world, carefully chipping away at the veneer to reveal its dark, sinister interior. In a world where anyone can change their skin color as often as they can change their hair color, race is fluid. Camellia is brown, and her sisters are various shades of brown and pale.
With a refreshingly original concept, this substantial fantasy, the first in a duology, is an undeniable page-turner (. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2849-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
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