Heartfelt but inconsistent.
Eliza Marino’s family, lifelong residents of New Jersey’s Long Beach Island, lost nearly everything in a devastating hurricane.
Five years later, she and her friends are on a mission to preserve their coastal marshland as a habitat for turtles and other wildlife. A lifeguard and talented surfer, Eliza, 17, remains traumatized by the storm that nearly killed her little brother. She and her friends resent the seasonal residents whose oceanfront mansions replaced the modest homes that were destroyed. Ensuring the marshland is preserved is challenging, however. Spontaneously venting their frustration, the teens vandalize a giant home under construction. For Eliza, teaching Milo Harris, a handsome, wealthy, vacationing New Yorker, to surf proves a happy distraction. However, each keeps secrets that threaten their fledgling romance. Despite one character’s referencing Indigenous activists, the text does not consider the Indigenous people displaced by the islanders’ ancestors. Eliza’s dad works in construction, and the cafe her mom co-owns depends on tourists. Such conflicts, though depicted, aren’t explored in depth and are primarily framed in an interpersonal context. The novel’s strengths are Eliza’s compelling voice—her hurricane flashbacks are mesmerizing—and the conveying of emotion; it only lightly explores the theme of youth climate change activism and issues connected to it. Most characters read as White; several secondary characters are Latinx, and one is nonbinary.
Heartfelt but inconsistent. (author’s note, resources) (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0916-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
An emotionally layered, deeply affecting work accessible to reluctant readers.
The misery of Anna’s home life is a secret weighing heavily on her shoulders.
Only child Anna feels caught between parents whose personal cold war regularly erupts in outright, vocal hostility. Once upon a time they had a happy household, enjoying vacations together and silly laughter over meals. Now her kindergarten teacher mother is unemployed and her epidemiologist father works long hours. The Atlanta teen, who aspires to become a globe-trotting journalist, tiptoes around on eggshells. The tension at home interferes with her schoolwork, resulting in angry lectures from her father and disappointment in herself. Her mother drinks too much and expresses her anger by aggressively cleaning the house. Anna has a budding romance with classmate Dave and a close relationship with her best friend, Jess, but as her home life becomes increasingly unpredictable, her shame over hiding the truth about her life increases. Debut author Bruce’s novel in verse exquisitely captures the emotional pain of a girl who desperately wants to enjoy school dances, take pride in her academic work, and connect with parents who are too preoccupied with their own conflict to see the suffering they’re causing her. Anna’s direct, vulnerable first-person narration will draw in readers as she attempts to navigate stressful situations on her own. All characters seem to be white.
An emotionally layered, deeply affecting work accessible to reluctant readers. (Verse novel. 13-18)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5383-8264-6
Page Count: 200
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A novel for reluctant readers that perpetuates egregious and damaging stereotypes.
A 10th grade girl searches for belonging.
From day one, as the “only white kid” at Smoholla Indian School on the Colville Reservation where she now lives, Helen White hears the laughter and feels the stares from her Native classmates. To survive the bullying, Helen pulls “further and further away,” trying to make herself invisible. Soon, Helen meets King BigElk, a “top / of the food chain” senior known “for being / wild.” Driven by a desire to belong, Helen casts off her “good girl” persona in an attempt to impress him. Though she gains acceptance, her decisions threaten to cross a dangerous line. While the character motivation and plot feel appropriately revealed within the free verse format, Native readers and those familiar with Native cultures will notice what reads like a checklist for writing a reservation story, whether it’s moving into mom’s boyfriend’s “trailer,” spreading “sage and sweetgrass” smoke “with an eagle feather,” HUD housing, a mother in rehab, an absentee father, eighteen money, or hard-drinking, pot-smoking, late-night parties. Other readers may not recognize as harmful stereotypes the litany of tropes portrayed. Additionally, by centering Helen as the “outsider” and describing her as a “minority” who sees herself as a “target” or feels she has “stopped existing,” Native characters become a supporting cast for serving the white character on her journey to self-awareness.
A novel for reluctant readers that perpetuates egregious and damaging stereotypes. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5383-8256-1
Page Count: 200
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
