Brilliant and multilayered; an absolute must-read.
The personal price of abortion bans.
Sixteen-year-old Ivy lives in Paris, Texas, an insular town with a fake Eiffel Tower and a culture of megachurches. She proudly works as an assistant manager at Euwing’s Drugs; she’s also a diligent student with plans for college who one day hopes to see the world. But when she gets pregnant, Ivy knows it could spell the end of her ambitions. People in her town are vitriolically antiabortion—and abortion in Texas is illegal after six weeks. She tells her boyfriend, Lorenzo, and he and Ivy’s mother organize a plan to drive to Oregon, where Ivy’s indomitable grandmother lives, to get an abortion. What ensues is both a poignant road trip through towns named after world cities so Ivy can, after a fashion, experience seeing the world and a searing reflection on the contrasting states of affairs around abortion access and community attitudes. Over the course of the trio’s journey, Ivy learns of other people’s abortion stories—and that one in four women gets one. This extraordinary story scrutinizes, through Ivy’s first-person, present-tense narrative, some of the historical and contemporary efforts to control women and the ways women have either been accessories to or have rebelled against them. The book offers a powerful argument for choice, bolstered by an exploration of women’s oppression and strength, told through a personal lens: It’s an individual story through which many readers will find universal commonalities. Main characters read white.
Brilliant and multilayered; an absolute must-read. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593485545
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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