Captivating introspection from a winning character.
Self-deprecating humor abounds in this debut novel that pulls no punches about the experience of depression and anxiety for its teen protagonist.
The words of Walt Whitman provide solace for 16-year-old James, whose mental health struggles are exacerbated by living with abusive parents and agonizing over what he could have done differently to prevent his older sister, Jorie, from being thrown out of the house. James' intense first-person narration, which includes imagined therapy sessions with a pigeon he calls Dr. Bird, both flares with frenetic silliness and sinks heavily into despair, realistically depicting his mood swings. At times contemplating suicide, he's aware of the gravity of his situation, even as his parents react with heartbreaking ambivalence: "Therapy isn't what you need....You're just at that age where you think everything is so horrible and terrible." His self-awareness makes him an enormously sympathetic character. Readers will root for him to win over Beth, the editor of his school's literary magazine, and forgive him for going over the top (“I know that they’re all just going to pretend like I’m not here trying to tear the walls down with my fucking barbaric yaawwwwwppppp!”) when he rages at a woman who has been carrying on an affair, with his best friend Derek, behind the back of her fiance.
Captivating introspection from a winning character. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: March 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-92853-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
Heavily meditative, this strange and heart-wrenching tale is stunningly original.
An estranged family’s tragic story is incrementally revealed in this deeply surreal novel.
Alternating narration among five teens, many of them unnamed but for monikers like The Freak, The Shoveler, and CanIHelpYou?, as well as an older married couple, Gottfried and Marla, and the younger of two violent and troubling brothers, an expansive net is cast. An unwieldy list of the cast featured in each part melds well with the frenetic style of this experimental work but does little to actually clarify how they fit together; the first half, at least, is markedly confusing. However, readers able to relax into the chaos will be richly rewarded as the strands eventually weave together. The bitingly sardonic voice of The Freak, who seems to be able to move through space and time, contrasts well with the understated, almost deadpan observations of The Shoveler, and the quiet decency of Malcolm and the angry snark of CanIHelpYou?, who is falling for her biracial (half white, half black) best friend, are distinctly different from Loretta’s odd and sexually frank musings. Family abuse and neglect and disordered substance use are part of the lives of many of the characters here, but it’s made clear that, at the root, this white family has been poisoned by virulent racism.
Heavily meditative, this strange and heart-wrenching tale is stunningly original. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-99491-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
A dynamic, suspenseful tale of friendship and betrayal.
In this thriller, two best friends find their relationship pushed to the breaking point.
After Brianna’s father became wealthy, Rain and Sydney felt abandoned by her as she warmed to her newfound acceptance by their more popular peers. Later, Rain also experiences a dramatic change in social class when her mother wins the lottery. This dark drama opens with a chapter from the perspective of Syd, whose sense of decency seems reliable even if her recollection of events, clouded by drug and alcohol use at a party the night before, does not. Alternating between Syd’s, Rain’s, and Brie’s points of view, and moving back and forth in time between the present and the periods before and after the house fire that claimed the life of one of the girls, the narrative structure sets the stage for a psychological mystery that explores loyalty and jealousy. There is a fair amount of coincidence packed into this story, but the intense emotions and yearnings each of the young women feel to be accepted and worthy ground this ever shifting novel in very real ways. Some readers will spot twists before they are revealed, but there is enough left up in the air until the very end to keep them hooked. The three main characters read as White; names signal some diversity in secondary characters.
A dynamic, suspenseful tale of friendship and betrayal. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-31270-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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