An intelligent, sensitive take on a coming-out story, with locales and characters that rise above the familiar.
A Cape Cod, Massachusetts, teenager deals with his tortured uncertainty about his sexual orientation in this YA novel.
In 2013, James Howard Wallace has just turned 18, and he’s agonizing over the fact that he still hasn’t lost his virginity. He has a seemingly willing partner in Liz, a sweet 18-year-old girl whom he’s known and admired since childhood. The problem, though, is that James has long had a secret desire for men, and he fears, in his own argot, that he isn’t “sterling”—that is, straight. (The book’s title is also James’ invention: his notion of a place in the world where everything is all right and he feels normal.) James finds a compassionate mentor in neighbor Pat Baxter, an antique bookshop owner, while working a seasonal job. Pat gently tells James of his own history of marriage and divorce—a cautionary tale of what can happen when one tries to live a lie. The store owner is also the catalyst for reuniting James with Nathaniel Flederbaum, whom the younger, less thoughtful James bullied in middle school. James’ long-standing guilt over this, and his wish to make things right, is complicated by his current attraction to the strapping Nate. Pratt (Looking After Joey, 2017, etc.) organically weaves in other life choices and changes, such as selecting a university, losing a beloved great-aunt, and making a decision about Liz, into the story of James’ maturation. The author delivers a LGBT coming-of-age novel that, for the most part, preserves the messiness and uncertainty of youth in the clever, funny voice of its protagonist. Readers may be particularly drawn to the conflicted, questioning James of the earlier chapters. Expected moments of coming-out drama are mitigated by family members’ tolerance and understanding. Overall, the quirky complexity of the various characters is appealing, as is the unusual New England setting.
An intelligent, sensitive take on a coming-out story, with locales and characters that rise above the familiar.Pub Date: March 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9981262-0-3
Page Count: 527
Publisher: Beautiful Dreamer Press
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
