A thoughtful indictment of white, cisgender, heterosexual rape culture.
Libby just wanted to make enough in tips to save for college, not be the sacrificial victim of her small town’s #MeToo moment.
After discovering that her parents ended up spending her college fund, Libby, who aspires to work in a museum—an ambition her father considers frivolous—has no choice but to earn as much as she can as quickly as she can. A scant few months into her waitressing job, 18-year-old Libby has already dealt with a proposition from obtuse co-worker Kyle and an unwanted butt grab and leering ridicule from Perry, a rich older man. Libby’s short-lived retaliation against Perry gets her fired—and infamous on the internet. Worse, she’s coping with trauma from two other sexual assaults and her father’s dysfunctional dominance. As Libby receives guidance from Dahlia, her school nurse, the town mobilizes against Perry for harassing servers, and Libby soon faces an agonizing choice. The novel takes on the topic of nonconsent and how deeply it is baked into male-female interactions in American society, a subject as fraught as things can get. Libby’s frank, wisecracking narration bolsters the reader through difficult scenes and occasionally uneven pacing. Though the story ends on a hopeful note, its honesty can be brutal. Mental health and racism are touched upon glancingly. Most main characters are white; Dahlia is brown-skinned, and Libby’s best friend is Chinese American.
A thoughtful indictment of white, cisgender, heterosexual rape culture. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-3571-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful tale of found family and first love.
After a year away, Ellis returns home to confront her past.
Graduating from high school far from everything familiar was not part of Ellis Truman’s original plans, but she nevertheless ended up spending her senior year with her aunt in California. In Indiana, Ellis practically grew up with the Albrey family and their three tightknit sons, Dixon, Tucker, and Easton. Now, Tucker wants her to return home for matriarch Sandry Albrey’s 50th birthday celebration on the Fourth of July—but Ellis is dreading seeing Easton, as they haven’t talked since she left. Chapters alternate between past and present, and much of the story unravels slowly: How did she come to live with the Albreys? What caused Ellis to then end up in San Diego? What happened in her relationship with Easton? Patient readers will find the heartfelt tension pays off. With her father in and out of jail and an absent mother, socio-economic differences separating Ellis from the middle-class Albreys don’t go unnoticed, and Ellis’ down-to-earth journey shows how she unpacks her feelings about her relationship with her parents. The slow-build romance is swoonworthy, and young adult fans of Colleen Hoover seeking emotional devastation and unforgettable characters will find much to enjoy here. Characters read as White.
A powerful tale of found family and first love. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308853-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
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