A quintessential thinking gal’s love story
A math whiz develops a formula to fix her high school experience.
Beatrice has never been very popular in school. The half-Filipino, half-white math nerd can count her friends on just two fingers: the moody white artist Spencer and the Latino, gay Gabe. On the cusp of senior year Bea has secured a boyfriend, white and generic Jesse, and hopes that the jocks and popular crowd will focus their bullying efforts on incoming freshman and leave her and her friends alone. But when Jesse dumps her for quirky, white new girl Toile, Bea sets her mind to turning her high school social experience into an equation to be solved. By tweaking a few variables in their personalities, she ensures that Spencer becomes the hip and trendy school artiste, Gabe transforms into the school’s queen, and Bea becomes Trixie, the school’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. McNeil enjoys breaking down the formula that makes up the standard MPDG and exposing it for the sexist nonsense it is, but she never lets that get in the way of Bea’s emotional journey. The love rhombus crafted here is a tad predictable, but the excitement’s in the execution: the author’s strong characterizations and smart humor put this above most similar titles. Bea’s cold and clinical nature is another plus: she isn’t driven by raging libido but rather a righteous anger that makes her a calculating badass.
A quintessential thinking gal’s love story . (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-240911-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Skip this uninspired entry into the world of medieval love and court intrigue.
In an imagined setting evoking medieval England, King Jameson of Coroa pursues Hollis Brite.
The independent teenager makes Jameson laugh, but she lacks the education and demeanor people expect in a queen. Her friend Delia Grace has more knowledge of history and languages but is shunned due to her illegitimate birth. Hollis gets caught up in a whirl of social activity, especially following an Isolten royal visit. There has been bad blood between the two countries, not fully explained here, and when an exiled Isolten family also comes to court, Jameson generously allows them to stay. Hollis relies on the family to teach her about Isolten customs and secretly falls in love with Silas, the oldest son, even though a relationship with him would mean relinquishing Jameson and the throne. When Hollis learns of political machinations that will affect her future in ways that she abhors, she faces a difficult decision. Romance readers will enjoy the usual descriptions of dresses, jewelry, young love, and discreet kisses, although many characters remain cardboard figures. While the violent climax may be upsetting, the book ends on a hopeful note. Themes related to immigration and young women’s taking charge of their lives don’t quite lift this awkwardly written volume above other royal romances. There are prejudicial references to Romani people, and whiteness is situated as the norm.
Skip this uninspired entry into the world of medieval love and court intrigue. (Historical romance. 13-16)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-229163-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Emotionally resonant and not without humor, this impressive debut about survival and connection, resourcefulness and...
Two girls on the racial margins of mid-19th-century America team up and head west.
As the book opens, Samantha, a 15-year-old Chinese-American violinist, yearns to move back to New York City in 1849, though her kind and optimistic father, owner of a dry goods store in the bustling outpost of Saint Joe, Missouri, has great plans for them in California. When the store burns down and her father dies, she is forced to defend herself from their predatory landlord. Suddenly on the run from the law, Samantha and Annamae, a 16-year-old African-American slave who covets freedom, disguise themselves as boys and head west on the Oregon Trail. Well-crafted and suspenseful, with more flow than ebb to the tension that stretches like taut wires across plotlines, Lee’s tale ingeniously incorporates Chinese philosophy and healing, music, art and religion, as well as issues of race and discrimination (including abolitionist views and examples of cruel slave treatment), into what is at its center a compelling love story. “Sammy” and “Andy” meet up with Cay, West and Peety, three young, good-hearted cowboys with secrets of their own, who help them on their arduous, dangerous journey.
Emotionally resonant and not without humor, this impressive debut about survival and connection, resourcefulness and perseverance will keep readers on the very edges of their seats. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16803-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
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