A diverting, insightful portrait of surviving adolescence and relying on family.
In Wise’s YA novel, a teenager finds potential romance at a new school where he’s also victimized by bullies.
Not long after his mother dies, 15-year-old Carlton McNeil leaves his Vermont hometown to live in New York City. Things are great with his uncle Ricky, a well-known retired hockey player for the New York Finbacks, who encourages Carlton to treat his penthouse like home. However, the teen runs into trouble at school: Fellow students Chad Eldridge and Marvin Gerhardsson start bullying him almost immediately, and it becomes a daily occurrence. They’re especially brutal—a cafeteria altercation leaves Carlton with a bloody nose, for instance—but Carlton doesn’t want to transfer elsewhere, as he’s smitten with his schoolmate: a charming “Goth girl” named Emily Shelton. To connect with her, he dives deep into the Goth subculture and even pushes Ricky to date Emily’s mother, so that he’ll have more chances to talk to Emily himself. Meanwhile, Chad and Marvin don’t let up; indeed, they frighteningly pursue Carlton outside of school. Carlton can only hope that they’ll eventually grow bored and leave him alone, before things get out of hand. Wise masterfully blends young love, student conflict, and family drama in this novel. Although the accounts of the bullies’ violent assaults are painful to read, they’re happily offset by the scenes of Carlton and Emily’s developing relationship. The tale also reveals that adults can be victims of bullying, too, when Ricky, as a guest commentator on a TV sports show, gets grief from its regular panelists. The dynamic cast also includes Ricky’s instantly likable former teammate Sébastien LeFort, and a teacher, Ms. Telton, who refuses to ignore the ongoing bullying, unlike other faculty members. An overall theme of being true to oneself shines through, despite the fact that Carlton’s reason for embracing the Goth lifestyle seems a bit questionable. Still, he has realistic and believable faults; he can be a bit manipulative with adults, but he’s also smart and mature enough to acknowledge his shortcomings.
A diverting, insightful portrait of surviving adolescence and relying on family.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9798989876723
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Caverly Place Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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