A starkly violent Western with surprising turns of tenderness.
In a gray Texas landscape decimated by natural disasters, two teens come together to find a way—and a reason—to survive.
White teen Seph isn’t an outlaw, but he’s not sure if he’s a cowboy either. He’s been on the road since he witnessed his father’s murder at age 9. Now he makes his way toward the ocean with his beloved horse, Cade, as his only companion. Seph’s never seen the sun or a blue sky—but he still has a chance of finding open water. Meanwhile, white teen Avery lives in a coal town with her twin brother, Finn, their parents both dead. But the mine is no longer producing enough coal, so when the Lawmen show up for their share, they end up taking five boys as payment instead. One of the boys is Finn. As Avery flees, lost and desperate to save her brother, Seph is captured elsewhere; but it isn’t long before their fates become entwined. Told through Seph’s and Avery’s distinct, alternating perspectives, a brutal saga unfolds. In the beginning, the blood and despair are almost too much to take, but once Seph and Avery team up, the darkness recedes just enough for their story to play out. Amid the chaos, a tender romance begins to spark, shedding a much-needed beam of hope onto the ruthless landscape.
A starkly violent Western with surprising turns of tenderness. (Western. 14-18)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2993-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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
Eden’s emotionally raw narration is compelling despite its solipsism. (Fiction. 14-18)
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. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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