Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A dark and romantic thriller for those who love sexy suspense.
Ella Graham begins her senior year at North Davis High in a waking nightmare.
She’s trying to get by without best friend Hayley Miller, who died in a car accident last spring. Ella is besieged by not only grief but also guilt—she was the one driving drunk when their car hit a boulder above a rushing river, though she remembers nothing. Placed in a support group run by school psychologist Mr. Wilkens, Ella must confront fellow attendee Sawyer Hawkins—Hayley’s boyfriend, whom she’s sure blames her—as well as her growing feelings for him. As their relationship blooms, Ella’s guilt intensifies. When she helps Hayley’s mother with the painful task of cleaning out her late daughter’s bedroom, Ella discovers Hayley’s diary, and from its contents, she learns much more about her friend than she ever imagined. Harlow’s debut is full of angst, and readers will be enticed to tear through the novel, which contains surprising twists and quickens in pace toward the end. Ella’s grief and survivor’s guilt are palpable, permeating every page. Ella and Sawyer’s relationship is both fraught and steamy, and romance fans will enjoy the intrigue of their unfolding relationship; their alternating points of view provide glimpses into both their psyches. Ella’s mom is Filipina (her dad’s ethnicity is not mentioned); most other major characters read white.
A dark and romantic thriller for those who love sexy suspense. (resources) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780593855720
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
This brutal, emotionally charged novel will grip readers and leave them brokenhearted
A minute-by-minute account of mass murder at a high school by a former student.
Four students from a range of different backgrounds at Alabama's Opportunity High, all of whom have a history with Tyler, the gunman, take turns telling this harrowing story in the first person. They include his sister, Autumn, and her clandestine girlfriend, Sylv, who have only each other for solace as the home lives of both are in upheaval. Tomás, Sylv's brother, recounts his and his friend Fareed's desperate efforts to help from outside the school's auditorium, where their fellow students and teachers are locked in with Tyler as he picks them off one by one. Finally, Claire, Tyler's ex-girlfriend, realistically agonizes over what to do when she and a few others outside running track realize that the gunshots they hear are coming from inside the school. Grounded in the present, the story makes effective use of flashbacks that lay bare the pain and deception that have led up to the day's horror. The language can occasionally feel a bit melodramatic, with lines like "we're fighting for hope and a thousand tomorrows," but this is a minor side note to this compelling story of terror, betrayal, and heroism.
This brutal, emotionally charged novel will grip readers and leave them brokenhearted . (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-2246-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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