by Edward Bloor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
A stagnant shopping mall in South Florida is a crowded center stage for this large-canvas story from Bloor (Tangerine, 1997), who weaves labyrinthine plot strands, from politics and the power of the media to alienation and personal redemption, while an exploration of racism hovers in the background. Smart, Seuss-spouting Roberta, 15, is capable and knowing beyond her years, raising herself on boxes of macaroni, neglected by a father whose presence is primarily the stack of rented videos he leaves for her on the counter. Her only family is the drunken uncle (in fact, most of the adults are bad guys, drunks, liars—even murderers) she works for at the failing virtual reality video arcade, and his troubled children. As the story unfolds, remarkably resilient Roberta comes closer to solving the riddle of her mother’s murder seven years ago; the solution hits close to home, and is only one among plot strands vying for attention as Roberta schools herself to become a reporter, conducts her own surveillance of local hate crimes, faces the death of a friend and an elderly guardian, saves the mall from bankruptcy, and inherits a Hallmark store. Roberta’s transformation from androgenous geek to self-sufficient, truth-seeking heroine is believable throughout, and, despite an overdose of detail, readers will be patient with a cast of characters for whom a bout of chicken pox is revelatory and a near-death in a freezer is life-affirming. Roberta emerges from her war a contemporary crusader, strong and whole and sure. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201944-8
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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by Caroline B. Cooney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2000
Billed as the conclusion to the saga that began with The Face on the Milk Carton (1990), this soapy drama ends with some wounds healed, but the characters and plot lines suspended in thin Rocky Mountain air. Raised by a Connecticut couple who believed themselves to be her grandparents, but were actually the mother and father of Hannah, her kidnapper, Janie has rejoined and subsequently relinquished her birth family to live with those who raised her. Now, as her “father” lies in intensive care, Janie discovers that he not only knows where Hannah is, but has been sending her money regularly from a special account. Hannah lives in Boulder, Colorado, where Janie’s older brother, Stephen, is going to school and falling hard for domineering Kathleen; Janie flies out for a visit, determined to confront Hannah, and get answers about her past. The characters have sharp intelligence and strong, complex feelings, but, despite staccato prose and frequent shifts in point-of-view, the plot lags, stretched out to give everyone a chance to wrestle with private demons. In what passes for a climax Stephen and Kathleen move apart, Janie and formerly disgraced boyfriend Reeve narrow the rift between them, and Janie decides to “unkidnap” herself by mailing Hannah the balance of the special account, without making direct contact. Readers may appreciate her wisdom, but as Hannah remains a faceless, voiceless enigma, there is no closure to the central mystery of the four- book drama. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-32611-4
Page Count: 189
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
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by Michael Cadnum ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1999
For a girl who is—by most standards—not perceived to be extraordinary, it is not easy living with a family of beautiful people. Jennifer Thayer both envies and resents her gourmet restaurateur/salad-dressing entrepreneur father, her industrial- psychologist mother who seems to care more about her work than about her younger daughter, and especially older sister Cass: lovely, talented, brainy, and preparing for marriage. Desperate for attention, Jennifer fakes an attempted rape, and at first, it works; for once in her life she is at center stage. Soon, however, the detective on the case figures out that something in the girl’s story isn’t right, and suspects that Jennifer’s mother has been abusing her. Caught up in the net of lies, Jennifer has to decide whether or not she can live with a growing sense of shame and guilt. Once again, Cadnum (Heat, 1998, etc.) has dissected the mind of one of society’s troubled young people, who has everything on the surface but is desperately trying to fill an unnamed emptiness. Deep, dark, and moving, this is a model tale of adolescent uneasiness set amid the roiling emotions of modern life. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-88377-8
Page Count: 167
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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