Nolan's first novel is ambitious indeed: she frames the story of teenage Chana's survival in the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz with a second story, about a young neo-Nazi who—after a motorcycle accident from which her vicious boyfriend escapes unscathed—is in the intensive care unit where Chana is dying half a century later. Also near death, Hilary relives Chana's ordeal and eventually recovers to carry on Chana's role as Holocaust witness. There are some real strengths here: Chana's experiences—losing her family, one by one; escaping Lodz with her grandmother only to be jailed, tortured, identified as a Jew, and sent to the concentration camp; brutal conditions, desperate survival techniques, and alliances and betrayals among Jewish inmates; the degradation of playing the violin for the Nazis in order to survive—are evidently selected in order to depict a range of horrors; but they're also graphically and tellingly portrayed. Hilary is less convincing: her troubled past is too briefly sketched to make a firm basis for her almost sensationalized fanaticism, while her change of heart doesn't develop; it simply emerges full-blown. Still, juxtaposing the virulent paranoia of present-day skinheads with their forebears' atrocities is a bold basis for a novel; if some of the transitions here are a bit awkward, the book as a whole is deeply felt and often compelling. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-15-238040-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch
From death row, a young man navigates prison and writes to his best friend in this powerful work of realistic fiction.
A poignant story of loyalty, abuse, and poverty is woven throughout a narrative that alternates between flashbacks to Luke and Toby’s senior year of high school (presented from their perspectives in the third person) and the present-day experience of Luke’s incarceration (told in first person through his letters to Toby). This structure allows the novel to build a slow and gripping tension as it progresses, revealing the horrific events that led to Luke’s arrest only at the very end, as the other details of the boys’ lives naturally unfold. Both are seemingly white. The two struggle to guard their friendship fiercely even as Toby becomes sexually involved with a likable but troubled young woman and Luke falls for a different girl. The two have been lifelong friends, supporting each other through family struggles—Toby’s with a physically abusive father and Luke’s with a neglectful mother who leaves him playing a parental role to his two younger brothers. Readers will easily empathize with quiet, tightly controlled Luke, who’s college-bound on a wrestling scholarship, and goofy, self-effacing Toby.
This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch . (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249427-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Editor and author Levithan winningly joins the ranks of talented authors exploring the novel-in-verse and kicks it up a notch. Though there is a progression of events in these mostly blank verse poems, it’s less a story than an examination of teenage relationships—with family, friends, self, and lovers—from every angle. Twenty distinct voices chime in with their own poem, series of poems, or cycle of songs; and several relationships and incidents are described by more than one character. No synopsis could do justice to the complexities of the interconnectedness of these characters. If high school is a dim memory for you, you might need a scorecard to keep track of who knows who and how well. However, all teenagers will find themselves, their relationships, and their attitudes toward life, love, and the pursuit of happiness somewhere in these poems. A must for YA collections used by those unafraid of poetry, strongly suggested for all others. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-82845-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2004
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