Try the far more exciting and provocative The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (2011), for a successful...
The (almost) always-intriguing game of "what if" is subjected to tortuous navel-gazing in this debut.
The story opens two months after the death of Camden's girlfriend, Viv, in an automobile accident. Two years earlier, when his football career was sidelined permanently by an injury, it was Viv who exclusively sustained him. Now he has nothing. When he finds himself—again—one night at the shrine erected at the accident site and sees an unfamiliar girl in an eerie green light, he reaches into the green light to push her away, inadvertently pulling her into his reality. It turns out that in her universe, the accident at that street corner had a very different result. The grief-stricken Cam finds himself drawn to this alternate reality, learning much about himself and his relationship with Viv that both tantalizes and disturbs him. The novel takes a very long time to get to this point and presents only one possible permutation of Cam's reality, leaving readers with only their attachment to Cam to keep them going. Unfortunately, his first-person, present-tense narration first wallows in his misery and then plods along, describing thoughts and actions in blow-by-blow detail that quickly becomes tiresome.
Try the far more exciting and provocative The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (2011), for a successful exploration of "what if." (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-209419-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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
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