A dynamic and intriguing SF mystery that explores the complex circumstances of lost and found families.
In the second book in the YA SF series, 11-year-old Mick Conway time-travels to 1853 London, where his ability to see “time alleys” helps the Forsyth Institute monitor a potentially cataclysmic phenomenon.
Mick is under the care of the Forsyth Institute, a powerful organization that employs numerous adults and kids for its mysterious Project. He’s one of a cohort of “alley rat[s] who had dropped from distant futures into the past as babies or as terrified, confused children.” The Institute trains them to avoid inadvertently changing the future. However, when repeated sightings of “time lightning” begin, a ragtag group of gifted alley rats recruit Mick, who can see the details of time alleys better than most, to uncover who’s behind it. Meanwhile, Mick must manage his grief and his desire to return to modern-day Chicago. In the first book, An Ambush of Years (2024), he was still reeling from the death of his mother; his father remained emotionally distant as he and his younger sister, Emilia, were shuttled between various family members. Now that Mick knows that there’s “absolutely, one hundred percent no way for him to go back home,” his focus shifts to rallying around his found family. That is, until a new discovery suggests that people he trusted may be keeping secrets about the alleys’ possibilities. Enfield excels at fantastical, grounded worldbuilding, presenting a historically accurate London populated with rich, diverse characters. He trusts readers to parse a complex cat-and-mouse game and doesn’t shy away from the violence that underpins both the Institute and historical England. The novel boldly tackles themes of imperialism, colonialism, and racism in its story of Mick, the child of a Mexican mother and a white American father; he faces challenges when navigating London’s hard streets, and in an expositional discussion with Lady Penbrook, who runs the Institute, he comes to understand “that triumph can grow even out of the soil of violence and loss.” Overall, Enfield offers his readers a considerate protagonist, whose growth is aided by self-reflection and empathy.
A dynamic and intriguing SF mystery that explores the complex circumstances of lost and found families.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781961953246
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Wayzgoose Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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