Donohoe’s title character is a modern addition to tragic white butches of the past in this bleak debut set in 1980s England.
Birdy has a lot to deal with. Trouble with neighborhood kids. Casual racism amid conflict with the Irish Republican Army and in the Falklands. A crush on a teacher ending in attempted sexual assault. Her conscience haunted by her failure to prevent the brutal murder of the family’s cat. Squeamish readers who want to move past memories of the black-and-white pet cannot, with her family hoping she comes home even as her blood is literally on Birdy’s clothes. The world seems confusing and murky from Birdy’s perspective, mimicking her necessary dissociation from assorted traumas—most of which are persistent tropes in stories about gender-nonconforming youth. Readers are left wondering if Birdy finds a clearer sense of self; she enjoys being taken for a boy but resents harassment from peers about getting a “sex change.” Labels aren’t always the answer, but this ambiguity precludes a more powerful resolution. Birdy experiences gender dysphoria, but readers can only speculate if that would ease with medical transition, with community among masculine women, or some other path. While her story ends with support and hope for the future, it’s unclear what that future will be.
Reminiscent of older lesbian fiction, this novel will satisfy readers with a taste for queer angst—but they really need to want it. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78074-939-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Rock the Boat/Oneworld
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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A slightly abridged graphic version of the classic that will drive off all but the artist’s most inveterate fans.
Admirers of the original should be warned away by veteran horror artist Bernie Wrightson’s introductory comments about Grimly’s “wonderfully sly stylization” and the “twinkle” in his artistic eye. Most general readers will founder on the ensuing floods of tiny faux handwritten script that fill the opening 10 pages of stage-setting correspondence (other lengthy letters throughout are presented in similarly hard-to-read typefaces). The few who reach Victor Frankenstein’s narrative will find it—lightly pruned and, in places, translated into sequences of largely wordless panels—in blocks of varied length interspersed amid sheaves of cramped illustrations with, overall, a sickly, greenish-yellow cast. The latter feature spidery, often skeletal figures that barrel over rough landscapes in rococo, steampunk-style vehicles when not assuming melodramatic poses. Though the rarely seen monster is a properly hard-to-resolve jumble of massive rage and lank hair, Dr. Frankenstein looks like a decayed Lyle Lovett with high cheekbones and an errant, outsized quiff. His doomed bride, Elizabeth, sports a white lock à la Elsa Lanchester, and decorative grotesqueries range from arrangements of bones and skull-faced flowers to bunnies and clownish caricatures.
Grimly plainly worked hard, but, as the title indicates, the result serves his own artistic vision more than Mary Shelley’s. (Graphic classic. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-186297-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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This story is necessary. This story is important.
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Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is a black girl and an expert at navigating the two worlds she exists in: one at Garden Heights, her black neighborhood, and the other at Williamson Prep, her suburban, mostly white high school.
Walking the line between the two becomes immensely harder when Starr is present at the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, by a white police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil’s death becomes national news, where he’s called a thug and possible drug dealer and gangbanger. His death becomes justified in the eyes of many, including one of Starr’s best friends at school. The police’s lackadaisical attitude sparks anger and then protests in the community, turning it into a war zone. Questions remain about what happened in the moments leading to Khalil’s death, and the only witness is Starr, who must now decide what to say or do, if anything. Thomas cuts to the heart of the matter for Starr and for so many like her, laying bare the systemic racism that undergirds her world, and she does so honestly and inescapably, balancing heartbreak and humor. With smooth but powerful prose delivered in Starr’s natural, emphatic voice, finely nuanced characters, and intricate and realistic relationship dynamics, this novel will have readers rooting for Starr and opening their hearts to her friends and family.
This story is necessary. This story is important. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-249853-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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