A story within a story, both surpassingly weird. The larger story is told by Evelyn, 13, who spends her days caring for her baby brother and wandering the ``broken rooms'' of a huge abandoned house in an unspecified desert, visited with precise regularity by a violent monthly storm. (That a place where it rains torrentially for several days a month is called a desert is just one example of the arbitrary and illogical caprice that governs this surrealistic first novel.) Evelyn's mother fled here after her husband abandoned the family; quite mad, she spends her waking hours trying to fabricate a raincoat that will withstand the storm's fury. The embedded story is a manuscript, by Evelyn's father, about a boy who receives a mysterious letter saying that he must kiss a whale—or perhaps (the handwriting is ambiguous) that he must kill a whale. Somehow, Evelyn's discovery of this unfinished story helps her accept her father's departure and forgive her mother for being crazy and neglectful, and she decides to write her own more-or-less hopeful ending. Evelyn's mother gives up her obsession with the Ultimate Raincoat, and the family moves back to a place where the weather is normal. A How-I-Came- To-Terms-With-My-Parents-Even-Though-They-Let-Me- Down story that could use less symbolism and more sense. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: June 24, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-74781-9
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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This tear-jerker will leave readers wanting to follow the next chapter in Darius’ life.
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Darius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him.
When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. When he arrives in Iran, learning to play the Persian card game Rook, socializing, and celebrating Nowruz with a family he had never properly met before is all overwhelming and leaves Darius wondering if he’ll ever truly belong anywhere. But all that changes when Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá’í boy, in Yazd. Sohrab teaches Darius what friendship is really about: loyalty, honesty, and someone who has your back in a football (soccer) match. For the first time in a long time, Darius learns to love himself no matter what external forces attempt to squash his confidence. Khorram’s debut novel is filled with insight into the lives of teens, weaving together the reality of living with mental illness while also dealing with identity and immigration politics.
This tear-jerker will leave readers wanting to follow the next chapter in Darius’ life. (Fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-55296-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
37
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After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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