A timely and relevant read.
A teenager’s experience with the perils of social media force her to make some difficult decisions.
Skye Matthews, a white teen who struggles with her body image and aspires to enter politics, lives with her mom and younger sister. Her father doesn’t pay child support, and Skye works at a tedious retail job. Her two best friends are Asha, a bold and daring half-Irish, half-Indian American girl from a wealthy family, and Emma, a beautiful, warmhearted blonde girl who is an avid movie buff and also financially more comfortable than Skye. At Asha’s birthday celebration—with just the three friends together, as always—she receives a slinky piece of lingerie as a jokey gift from Emma. To lighten the mood when Asha wants Emma to wear it but she demurs, Skye volunteers to put it on. To Skye’s horror, Asha livestreams her catwalking in the lingerie on a popular social media network. Before the video is deleted, someone saves a screenshot and uses it to blackmail her. At first, Skye tries to follow through on the demands, but when her boyfriend and younger sister are pulled in, the stakes get higher. Told in alternating viewpoints, the novel raises numerous real issues in the lives of teenagers—popularity, dating and body image, family issues, socio-economic differences and their resulting tensions, personal aspirations, trust, and maintaining one’s online reputation.
A timely and relevant read. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-90399-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Point/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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