A moving tale of grief and self-discovery.
An English teen reckons with the loss of her artist mother.
Reuter Hapgood (The Square Root of Summer, 2016) serves up an intriguing story of love, loss, and sibling relations. When 17-year-old Minnie Sloe’s “disco ball of a mother” vanishes on the last day of the school year, Minnie’s world is completely upended as she finds a letter that points to suicide—and literally begins to see in black and white. Minnie and her sisters were raised solely by their mother, who attained artistic superstardom when her debut sculpture won the prestigious Turner Prize. Minnie and her sisters—19-year-old Niko, who’s Deaf, and 15-year-old Emmy-Kate—each have strong artistic leanings and have relished their eclectic upbringing, accustomed to their mother’s erratic behavior, characterized by Minnie as “sinkholes and starlight” and not a psychological condition that might lead their mother to take her own life. But when she begins to suffer from monochromacy, Minnie begins to question her own sanity and deeply probe her mother’s demons in ways that greatly impact her relationships with her sisters, steady boyfriend, and an attractive new guy at school. Bracketed by the loss of a parent and teen romance, this well-wrought narrative excels at normalizing both the throes of artistic expression and the varying dimensions of physical and mental challenges. Minnie and her sisters are white; her boyfriend and his uncle are of Indian descent.
A moving tale of grief and self-discovery. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62672-375-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy follow-up to a stellar debut.
A Black teenage witch deals with the fallout of past choices while trying to prevent future destruction.
Voya is facing the aftermath of the tough choices she made in Blood Like Magic (2021) in order to pass her Calling and acquire magical powers. Having received two gifts, Voya is now the youngest Matriarch ever to be crowned in her family. She finds that she has much to do to earn the respect of those around her—and possibly even those who came before her, since her ancestors have not answered any of her calls for guidance. The recent death of her grandmother—her family’s previous Matriarch—has caused new intrafamilial strain and enhanced existing stressors. Not only that, but Justin Tremblay, renowned tech magnate and sponsor father of Luc, Voya’s first love, is presumed dead, and Luc thinks Voya is responsible. As if her plate weren’t full enough, Voya experiences a vision that shows her the potential annihilation of her family and the wider Black witch community in Toronto. Now, to try and prevent the devastating future she foresaw, she has to work to overcome her insecurities as a Matriarch and convince the elders who also lack faith in her to unite. Thanks to Sambury’s fluid writing style and well-established storyline and characters, readers will easily be able to follow Voya and other supporting characters as their lives and challenges become more complicated.
A worthy follow-up to a stellar debut. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6531-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love.
Finally, the intersectional, lesbian, historical teen novel so many readers have been waiting for.
Lily Hu has spent all her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, keeping mostly to her Chinese American community both in and out of school. As she makes her way through her teen years in the 1950s, she starts growing apart from her childhood friends as her passion for rockets and space exploration grows—along with her curiosity about a few blocks in the city that her parents have warned her to avoid. A budding relationship develops with her first White friend, Kathleen, and together they sneak out to the Telegraph Club lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality as well as their relationship to each other. Lo’s lovely, realistic, and queer-positive tale is a slow burn, following Lily’s own gradual realization of her sexuality while she learns how to code-switch between being ostensibly heterosexual Chinatown Lily and lesbian Telegraph Bar Lily. In this meticulously researched title, Lo skillfully layers rich details, such as how Lily has to deal with microaggressions from gay and straight women alike and how all of Chinatown has to be careful of the insidious threat of McCarthyism. Actual events, such as Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 visit to San Francisco, form a backdrop to this story of a journey toward finding one’s authentic self.
Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love. (author’s note) (Historical romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-55525-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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