A sensitive but unsparing coming-of-age drama.
An earnest novel about the journey of a young Mexican immigrant.
This debut novel by Thomas, a longtime immigration rights activist, opens in Los Angeles in 2015, when Alma Cruz’s 14-year-old daughter, Luz, accuses her of knowing nothing about the plight of Central American refugee children detained at the Texas border. Luz’s outburst prompts Alma to reflect on her own life and on secrets that she can never reveal. Her story begins when her beloved father, Juan Cruz—who traveled annually from Oaxaca City, Mexico, to work in California—disappears in 1997, leaving his wife and four children back home. Alma’s dream of becoming a math teacher is shattered, and her mother’s distant cousin moves in with them, which further complicates matters. Unwilling to accept that her father has deserted them, Alma hatches a plan to go north and seek help from her half brother, Diego, in Los Angeles and from Dolores Huerta, a famous activist about whom her father had spoken. Alma and her sister, Rosa, eventually team up with Manuel, a 16-year-old refugee from Guatemala. In an author’s note, Thomas addresses at length the research she undertook and the issues involved in telling this story as a non-Latina author. Her use of Alma’s math journal, which includes story problems (with answers provided in the back of the book), is an especially effective storytelling device. This, along with the tender depiction of first love and an epilogue by Alma’s daughter, Luz, may make the novel intriguing for YA readers. Readers should be warned, however, that the characters’ attempts to cross the border build to a tragic, life-changing event in the Arizona desert involving sexual assault. Alma is a compelling narrator throughout, and Thomas’ clear, simple prose conveys the terrifying encounters and moments of danger that mark her journey. Minor characters, including Alma’s former teacher and a nurse’s aide who helps Alma evade a detention center, also emerge as fully rounded individuals.
A sensitive but unsparing coming-of-age drama.Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63152-870-5
Page Count: 250
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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