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THE YEAR OF LIVING AWKWARDLY

SOPHOMORE YEAR

From the Chloe Snow's Diary series , Vol. 2

Filled with the whining and pining of a sophomore girl’s diary and sadly lacking in substance.

Chloe Snow’s freshman year was characterized by highs and lows, and her sophomore year is shaping up to offer much of the same.

Last year, Chloe was the lead in the school musical and received the occasional attention of an older guy. She also grew apart from her best friend and suffered a bout of intense cyberbullying, all while her flaky mother trotted off to Mexico and her parents’ marriage fell apart. The series’ second installment reads like a watered-down version of the first. Chloe’s mother is still in Mexico, occasionally popping up in Chloe’s inbox to wreak emotional havoc. Her relationship with her best friend is once again strained. Mean-girl bullying rears its ugly head again, this time in person. Chloe continues to drop in moments of social awareness acknowledging her many privileges as a “straight, white, upper-middle-class person,” but she immediately discards such realizations, returning to her own self-absorbed drama. The biggest change is that she spends this year obsessing over a younger guy with a girlfriend instead of an older one. Those who loved Chloe’s first diary may enjoy reading much of the same again, but the narrative offers little to anyone else.

Filled with the whining and pining of a sophomore girl’s diary and sadly lacking in substance. (Fiction. 12-15)

Pub Date: July 10, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4814-8878-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: April 9, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018

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THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS

From the Girl of Fire and Thorns series , Vol. 1

Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...

Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.

Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.

Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011

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LEGEND

From the Legend series , Vol. 1

This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes

A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.

Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.

This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)

Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011

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