Black Swan with an addictive coming-of-age twist.
A high schooler stumbles across classical music and discovers a darker side to ambition in Forest’s YA novel.
Sixteen-year-old Anna Clark grew up outside the world of classical music. She feels like an outsider in her Boston suburb and can’t relate to her sports-obsessed family. Her main hobby is robotics until she accidentally stumbles across a classical music performance and purchases a CD of iconic British hornist Dennis Brain playing Mozart. The experience changes her life. Her mom pushes guitar, but Anna pushes back. She visits the band teacher, and soon her interest in the French horn ignites. She earns first chair in her school band before she secures her dream spot in the coveted Boston Youth Philharmonic. Within this new world, she comes to know Juliet Jaeger, a friend of sorts whose musical talent and her charisma draw out Anna’s darker side. The frenemies share tender moments, such as when Juliet lends Anna her old horn when she can’t afford her own, along with contempt and suspicion. (“We were teenage girls, malevolent creatures, rivals, foils, friends. I envied her rude bravado and unbearable talent.”) Their rivalry intensifies through a summer at the cutthroat music camp, where the pressure pushes both to the absolute brink. The novel’s sharpest instrument is its first-person voice, capturing teenage angst, isolation, jealousy, and ambivalence. Though readers learn Juliet’s fate in the opening line, the mystery of her undoing is delicious to read: “Awe and jealousy burned through me. I finally had to admit it: She was the best high school horn player I’d ever heard.” The novel ably depicts Anna’s artistry and burgeoning identity. Also, Forest’s portrayal of the pair’s dynamic examines the effects and toll of pursuing one’s passion in a ruthlessly competitive field. A bespoke novel for readers who love complex characters and prickly relationships that fall within the gray areas of friendship.
Black Swan with an addictive coming-of-age twist.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2026
ISBN: 9798997169503
Page Count: 409
Publisher: Ochre Mountain Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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