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
Learning to love her whole disabled self is the greatest challenge for the protagonist of this novel.
In free verse, a girl explores the social dislocation of an Ehlers-Danlos syndrome diagnosis.
Sixteen-year-old Natalie has missed tons of school since her surgeries. Nobody at school knows about her diagnosis, but nobody can miss that much school without starting rumors. But though she wants to remain invisible and unnoticed, that will be impossible when she’s going from class to class in her new motorized wheelchair. Luckily Natalie has an unexpected ally in her quest to be a “normal” girl. After the school principal denies her the necessary accommodations, Natalie grits her teeth, hides her wheelchair every day, and pretends to be “normal.” It’s not until she meets Riley, a wheelchair-using classmate, that Natalie begins to be open to visibility. Her friendship with Riley has its ups and downs, as Riley, a passionate disability activist, doesn’t have much patience for Natalie’s internalized ableism. Fairly pedestrian verse does no harm to Natalie’s journey from self-loathing to enthusiastic and joyful action. The real villain to defeat isn’t the cartoonishly petty school administrator, it’s internalized shame. Natalie only mentions the skin color of non-White people, reinforcing the White default for her and other characters; Riley has brown skin.
Learning to love her whole disabled self is the greatest challenge for the protagonist of this novel. (Verse novel. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-978595-45-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Explores adolescent anxiety and shows a young woman figuring out where she belongs.
A star high school athlete begins having panic attacks that affect her at school and home.
Lacey Stewart might be the popular MVP of her Buffalo, New York, high school’s lacrosse team, but off the field she feels like a mess. Not only do her parents (particularly her mom) denigrate her athletic achievements, but she’s experiencing overwhelming and debilitating stress about taking the SATs, dealing with picky customers at her barista job, trying to win all her games, and passing difficult classes. After researching her symptoms, Lacey realizes she’s having panic attacks that are indicative of anxiety, but her parents are dismissive, and she’s initially too scared to admit her feelings to her coach, her best friend, or her boyfriend. Told in free verse, the book offers an accessible introduction to the topic of anxiety and how to seek much-needed support. Lacey’s middle-class parents are not appreciative of her extraordinary lacrosse skills (her mother regards contact sports as unladylike) and dismiss her mental health struggles. Many teens will find that Lacey’s challenges in school, sports, and relationships resonate. The story is engaging and will pull in reluctant readers, and the realistically upbeat ending is encouraging. Characters are cued as White.
Explores adolescent anxiety and shows a young woman figuring out where she belongs. (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-978595-51-4
Page Count: 200
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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