Powerful.
A skateboarder in Limerick contends with his long-absent mother’s return to town with her new partner and young daughter.
The narrative moves between present and past, punctuated by entries from the Gone Book, the secret journal 15-year-old Matt Lynch kept for five years: “Today in school we made Mothers Day cards and they all looked at me…Johnny Tolan even laughed…They never looked at Tara Hayes and her Mam is dead. So it’s ok to be dead is it? Dead is better than gone?” The tension-filled scenes between Matt’s tightly controlled father, a former alcoholic who attends Alcoholics Anonymous and runs marathons, and his older brother, Jamie, who’s gone from excelling at school to spiraling into disordered alcohol and drug use, have a visceral charge, always threatening to veer into violence. Matt’s relationship with his best friend, Mikey Chung, who’s Chinese Irish (and subtly cued as biracial), has also become strained. Matt, who presents white, has found an escape in skateboarding and has lost a lot of weight; his unkind frustration with Mikey, whom he frequently describes as “fat,” is ongoing. Polish immigrant Anna Novak, a fellow skater for whom Matt is clearly falling, is struggling with her mother’s health issues. This tinderbox is ignited by Matt’s mam’s return; her apparent desire to be part of her sons’ lives again seems destined for tragedy. This taut, emotionally authentic story told from Matt’s naturally flowing first-person perspective features raw, sometimes uncomfortable, language and complex characterization and offers no easy answers.
Powerful. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781912417445
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little Island
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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