Readers looking for addiction fiction would be better served elsewhere.
A coming-of-age story told through the lenses of pornography addiction, music, and romance.
While the medical community still debates pornography addiction, books on the topic should offer nuanced, through-provoking, and interesting vantage points to allow readers to consider (and possibly challenge) their perspectives. Alas, this book does not. Readers meet Adam Hawthorne, a white high school student whose addiction to pornography is almost as strong as Connis’ fondness for grandiose and cumbersome dialogue. A school-based MacGuffin forces Adam to meet weekly with a platitude-spouting music producer–turned–chemistry teacher with a drug- and alcohol-fueled past who saves Adam from expulsion by forcing him to attend a public addiction group and to meet with a group of students who all are caught up in their own destructive addictions. Adam also meets the white and infinitely sexy Desiree “Dez” Coulter, a self-proclaimed addict to addiction. When one of the students falls victim to his demons, Adam must re-examine his life and attempt to move forward as a recovering addict. Separately, Adam’s melodramatic eccentricities are not wholly out of line with the teenage ego, but when assembled, they create a disingenuous character. The secondary characters seem little more than sketches with a few capricious quirks, while the character of Dez and her “addicted to addiction” storyline offer little insight or support for readers considering their own dependencies.
Readers looking for addiction fiction would be better served elsewhere. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-0730-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
This story is necessary. This story is important.
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is a black girl and an expert at navigating the two worlds she exists in: one at Garden Heights, her black neighborhood, and the other at Williamson Prep, her suburban, mostly white high school.
Walking the line between the two becomes immensely harder when Starr is present at the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, by a white police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil’s death becomes national news, where he’s called a thug and possible drug dealer and gangbanger. His death becomes justified in the eyes of many, including one of Starr’s best friends at school. The police’s lackadaisical attitude sparks anger and then protests in the community, turning it into a war zone. Questions remain about what happened in the moments leading to Khalil’s death, and the only witness is Starr, who must now decide what to say or do, if anything. Thomas cuts to the heart of the matter for Starr and for so many like her, laying bare the systemic racism that undergirds her world, and she does so honestly and inescapably, balancing heartbreak and humor. With smooth but powerful prose delivered in Starr’s natural, emphatic voice, finely nuanced characters, and intricate and realistic relationship dynamics, this novel will have readers rooting for Starr and opening their hearts to her friends and family.
This story is necessary. This story is important. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-249853-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch
From death row, a young man navigates prison and writes to his best friend in this powerful work of realistic fiction.
A poignant story of loyalty, abuse, and poverty is woven throughout a narrative that alternates between flashbacks to Luke and Toby’s senior year of high school (presented from their perspectives in the third person) and the present-day experience of Luke’s incarceration (told in first person through his letters to Toby). This structure allows the novel to build a slow and gripping tension as it progresses, revealing the horrific events that led to Luke’s arrest only at the very end, as the other details of the boys’ lives naturally unfold. Both are seemingly white. The two struggle to guard their friendship fiercely even as Toby becomes sexually involved with a likable but troubled young woman and Luke falls for a different girl. The two have been lifelong friends, supporting each other through family struggles—Toby’s with a physically abusive father and Luke’s with a neglectful mother who leaves him playing a parental role to his two younger brothers. Readers will easily empathize with quiet, tightly controlled Luke, who’s college-bound on a wrestling scholarship, and goofy, self-effacing Toby.
This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch . (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249427-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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