Another empathetic, immersive journey into the disquieting depths of puberty.
In Book 3 of Amman’s Italian Saga, a tween girl navigates the travails of middle school.
This installment of an Italian middle schooler’s adventures again finds Leda Balni, now 12, ping-ponging from happiness to despair, sometimes in the course of one day. Things that bring joy to Leda in her Arese community include the volleyball team she captains, which makes it to the finals, and her intense friendship with the delicate Nata, whom Leda meets while visiting her grandmother. Leda’s reluctance to embrace traditional femininity continues, though her mother, Starry, convinces her to groom her thick eyebrows and facial hair, and she buys Leda an unwanted fur. Leda’s classmates, among them the lustful Sonia and the hormone-addled, weed-obsessed Franco, feel increasingly alien to her. The handsome 15-year-old Alex takes an interest, and while Leda likes singing Queen songs with him while riding on his bike handlebars, a kiss delivers no sparks—Alex’s lips on hers feel “weird and foreign.” Leda harbors different feelings for her disaffected classmate Nico, who formerly bullied her but now makes her shiver. As Leda matures, her sense of isolation and her ambivalence about being someone’s girlfriend remain constant. As in the previous two books, Amman’s humor and sensitivity enliven the universal experiences of adolescence, giving them fresh sparkle: Leda discovers orgasmic wonders with a well-aimed showerhead, and her period’s onset occasions the deployment of “a canoe-sized pad.” The strong-willed Leda, enraptured by poetry, is still an endearing mess—she melodramatically writes “DIE!!!” in her own blood—and the new characters around her are equally entertaining. The perceptive professor Rezzi tells Leda, “Most of us only see what we’re told,” and heartthrobs Romeo and Francesco learn to relate to Leda as a fellow bro. The Italian setting is an evocative dichotomy of joy and sorrow; in the beautiful Cinque Terre, “tiny colored homes perched on the hillside like seagulls’ nests,” while unhoused people sleep on cardboard boxes at the Milan train station.
Another empathetic, immersive journey into the disquieting depths of puberty.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781971429052
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing.
When someone murders the renowned founder of an oppressively rigorous Washington, D.C., school, three students—all boys of color—emerge as prime suspects.
The police haul in a trio of Urban Promise Prep students, two Black and one Salvadoran, for questioning following the murder of Principal Kenneth Moore. For J.B. Williamson, Urban Promise’s strict rules and regulations are suffocating, but his luck seems to turn when he finally makes a tentative move forward with his crush. Jokester Trey Jackson, meanwhile, does his best to ensure his place in the big basketball game, and no one—not even his tough-as-nails Uncle T—can stop him. Ramón Zambrano dreams of one day owning a restaurant. In the meantime, he gets by hustling pupusas at school and refusing to succumb to pressure from his beloved cousin César, the feared leader of the Dioses del Humo gang. At Urban Promise, one false move can cost a college-bound future. Unfortunately, all three boys engaged in public spats with Principal Moore before his death; to clear their names, they must investigate and uncover the killer’s identity. In a masterful use of multiple points of view from both the main protagonists and secondary characters, Brooks weaves a tale of intrigue, doubt, and hearsay with ease, doling out crucial tidbits and clues. Each gradual reveal prods readers to reconsider and reassess. Featuring a sharp examination of systemic inequality in urban schools and Black and Latine boyhood, this novel delivers in spades.
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-86697-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
