Block’s latest can’t decide if it’s allegory, tribute or classical fairy tale.
Is Penelope the last person left alive in the world? The floodwaters that slammed through her Los Angeles neighborhood took her mother, father, brother and even her dog. While she journeys across the ravaged land, myth-loving readers—such as Penelope herself, who reads Ovid for fun and tells her friends stories about “Odysseus, Aeneas, and Achilles”—might notice familiar themes. (Despite the title's nod to García Marquez, the direct Homeric references dominate.) Penelope blinds a one-eyed giant in a chapter called “The Cyclops,” escaping by calling herself “Nobody.” In the Lotus Hotel, she meets addicts high on euphoric juice squeezed from flower petals. The parallels to The Odyssey become even more obvious when Penelope meets a sexy young man in black motorcycle boots whose favorite book is The Odyssey itself and who entertains Penelope by reading from the section of Homer’s epic about the Lotus Eaters. The continuing allusions, sometimes explicitly remarked upon by Penelope and the fellow adventurers she gathers along the way, are unsubtle but not entirely clear. But that may not matter so much: Block’s trademark magical realism works best in a brief, dreamy journey such as this one, even if the destination is uncertain.
Mishmash or no, there’s something encouraging about seeing four queer kids on an epic journey across the post-apocalyptic American Southwest . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9627-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
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This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
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After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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In the three years following Eden’s brutal rape by her brother’s best friend, Kevin, she descends into anger, isolation, and promiscuity.
Eden’s silence about the assault is cemented by both Kevin’s confident assurance that if she tells anyone, “No one will ever believe you. You know that. No one. Not ever,” and a chillingly believable death threat. For the remainder of Eden’s freshman year, she withdraws from her family and becomes increasingly full of hatred for Kevin and the world she feels failed to protect her. But when a friend mentions that she’s “reinventing” herself, Eden embarks on a hopeful plan to do the same. She begins her sophomore year with new clothes and friendly smiles for her fellow students, which attract the romantic attentions of a kind senior athlete. But, bizarrely, Kevin’s younger sister goes on a smear campaign to label Eden a “totally slutty disgusting whore,” which sends Eden back toward self-destruction. Eden narrates in a tightly focused present tense how she withdraws again from nearly everyone and attempts to find comfort (or at least oblivion) through a series of nearly anonymous sexual encounters. This self-centeredness makes her relationships with other characters feel underdeveloped and even puzzling at times. Absent ethnic and cultural markers, Eden and her family and classmates are likely default white.
Eden’s emotionally raw narration is compelling despite its solipsism. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4935-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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