From a new author, a haunting, sometimes intensely sensual tale of failed teenage love, set in a small bayou town. Since her mother's death, Deirdre and her father and brother have just been going through the motions of being a family, and the move from New York City to Charmette, Louisiana, has left her friendless to boot. Then she meets Johnny Vouchamps, a mysterious young man with an accordion and a seemingly psychic ability to know what she's thinking. She's gripped by a powerful attraction, and he seems to feel the same. Deirdre describes their moments together with breathless intensity; he rows her to his secluded cabin to meet his older brother, Leander, and plays strange and wild music for her. The passion is as brief, though, as it is intense; they drink too much at a party, lash out at each other, and the magic is gone. So is Johnny, although Deirdre has second thoughts. Several elements, including Deirdre's extended catalog of cliques and types in her new high school, and Leander, who turns out to be a transvestite, unsympathetically portrayed, interrupt the story's development, but the major players are complex, enigmatic characters struggling to deal with grief and regret. A brooding, atmospheric story. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-32230-5
Page Count: 201
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
This one shoots and scores.
Tre wants to play basketball—for his brother, for his reservation, and for his future.
Ojibwe sophomore Tre Brun from Red Lake Nation Reservation in Minnesota recently lost Jaxon, his high school basketball star brother, in a car accident. All Tre wants to do these days is read graphic novels, hang out with his friends, get new girl Khiana to like him back, and play basketball. With dreams of making it in the NBA and one day becoming the subject of best friend Wes’ first documentary, Tre hopes to make varsity this school year and help his brother’s old team, the Warriors, finally make it to states. Basketball is taken seriously on the reservation, and Tre must learn to have faith in himself despite his father’s lack of belief in him while also navigating racism, the resentment of those who think he falls short of his brother’s legacy, and the pitfalls of partying and trying too hard to fit in. Debut author Graves (Ojibwe) presents a deeply personal look at grief, the weight of expectations, and the ways we find connections with those we have lost. While the start feels a bit forced, the novel quickly settles into its coming-of-age sports-underdog story, giving readers tense, fast-paced descriptions of high-stakes basketball games interspersed with textured descriptions of life on the reservation.
This one shoots and scores. (glossary, note from Cynthia Leitich Smith) (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9780063160378
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Heartdrum
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises.
What would you do with one day left to live?
In an alternate present, a company named Death-Cast calls Deckers—people who will die within the coming day—to inform them of their impending deaths, though not how they will happen. The End Day call comes for two teenagers living in New York City: Puerto Rican Mateo and bisexual Cuban-American foster kid Rufus. Rufus needs company after a violent act puts cops on his tail and lands his friends in jail; Mateo wants someone to push him past his comfort zone after a lifetime of playing it safe. The two meet through Last Friend, an app that connects lonely Deckers (one of many ways in which Death-Cast influences social media). Mateo and Rufus set out to seize the day together in their final hours, during which their deepening friendship blossoms into something more. Present-tense chapters, short and time-stamped, primarily feature the protagonists’ distinctive first-person narrations. Fleeting third-person chapters give windows into the lives of other characters they encounter, underscoring how even a tiny action can change the course of someone else’s life. It’s another standout from Silvera (History Is All You Left Me, 2017, etc.), who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived.
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises. (Speculative fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-245779-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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