A compelling journey of self-discovery with a voice that rings true.
In Byington’s debut YA novel, a girl faces obstacles as she trains for the 1968 Boston Marathon—including epilepsy, sexism, and her parents’ secret.
Faye Smith is 15 in the fall of 1967 as she begins attending another new school. This time it’s in Valencia, Florida, where her father now works in an orange grove. Faye loves running and hopes someday to teach physical education. A University of Florida track coach is impressed enough to scout her, but her parents quash her hopes; they’re also furious that her recent track-meet performance wound up on TV. They can’t call attention to themselves, Faye’s mother says, because her father was wrongly accused of doing something illegal. “Honey, college isn’t for people like us,” her mom also says. “We’re blue-collar workers.” In addition, she worries that Faye’s training could trigger another epileptic seizure. Faye becomes even more determined to run in the Boston Marathon, even after a bully tries to run her over while she’s running outside. Into the new year, Faye saves money and keeps training—but old nightmares and odd flashes of memory begin surfacing, including the image of a woman who seems familiar. Increasingly certain that her parents are lying to her, Faye starts to investigate the past. Along the way, she runs harder than ever toward the marathon—and the truth. In her debut novel, Byington offers a well-written, exciting story featuring an admirably resilient heroine who’s both strong and vulnerable, by turns. The South of the late 1960s provides an effective backdrop for Faye’s experiences; at one point, for instance, her volunteer coach, a black man, puts himself in real danger—simply by running with Faye and another white girl in public. Byington nicely balances the more dramatic events with scenes of Faye’s everyday teenage life—learning to drive and having a first date and first kiss. The novel’s secrets unravel convincingly, although Faye frustratingly ignores a letter that could have explained everything earlier. When the mystery is finally solved, the teenager shows herself to be thoughtful and mature about some very thorny matters.
A compelling journey of self-discovery with a voice that rings true.Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-986281-84-3
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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