Teens will find it easy to relate to this drama that touches on the supernatural but is grounded in sisterly love and common...
Sixteen-year-old Lil has been sad and anxious since her sister, Mella, inexplicably went missing over four months earlier.
Although sometimes resentful of her sister’s colorful character and unpredictable behavior, Lil misses her terribly. Events take a strange turn when Lil rescues a young teen, apparently the victim of a mysterious accident, who is eventually able to provide clues as to Mella’s whereabouts. Set against the backdrop of the wet and wild Welsh countryside, the story is punctuated with chapters about gatherings of the Sisterhood of the Light led by the charismatic but evil Moon whose mission it is to bring down-and-out girls in from the Dark and induct them into the sinister Light-worshipping Sisterhood. With the help of her loyal boyfriend, Kiran, and her policewoman aunt, Sabrina, Lil continues to search for Mella, haunted by imaginary conversations with her, survivor’s guilt, and flashbacks to the good and bad times they had together. Lil’s reflections on Mella and her anxiety and insecurity are relevant to modern teen issues, and Lil experiences the flood and fire of a traumatic separation. The relationship between the sisters is well-drawn. Most major characters are assumed white, and Kiran is biracial, with a white Welsh mother and British-Indian father.
Teens will find it easy to relate to this drama that touches on the supernatural but is grounded in sisterly love and common sense. (Thriller. 14-17)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2906-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Best leave it at maybe so.
Two 17-year-olds from the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, work together on a campaign for a progressive state senate candidate in an unlikely love story.
Co-authors Albertalli (Leah on the Offbeat, 2018, etc.) and Saeed (Bilal Cooks Daal, 2019, etc.) present Jamie Goldberg, a white Ashkenazi Jewish boy who suffers from being “painfully bad at anything girl-related,” and Maya Rehman, a Pakistani American Muslim girl struggling with her parents’ sudden separation. Former childhood best friends, they find themselves volunteered as a team by their mothers during a Ramadan “campaign iftar.” One canvassing adventure at a time, they grow closer despite Maya’s no-dating policy. Chapters alternate between Maya’s and Jamie’s first-person voices. The endearing, if somewhat clichéd, teens sweetly connect over similarities like divorced parents, and their activism will resonate with many. Jamie is sensitive, clumsy, and insecure; Maya is determined, sassy, a dash spoiled, and she swears freely. The novel covers timeless themes of teen activism and love-conquers-all along with election highs and lows, messy divorces, teen angst, bat mitzvah stress, social media gaffes, right-wing haters, friendship drama, and cultural misunderstandings, but the explicit advocacy at times interferes with an immersive reading experience and the text often feels repetitious. Maya’s mother is hijabi, and while Maya advocates against a hijab ban, she chooses not to wear hijab and actively wrestles with what it means to be an observant Muslim.
Best leave it at maybe so. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293704-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking.
Sixteen-year-old Mandy considers herself the anti-Starfire: Unlike her scantily clad superhero mother, she doesn’t have superpowers, can’t fly, and doesn’t even own a bathing suit.
Mandy dyes her hair and dresses in all black to further call out how different they are. Mandy’s best friend, Lincoln, whose parents were born in Vietnam, insightfully summarizes this rift as being down to an intergenerational divide that occurs whether parents and children come from different countries or different planets. Mandy tries to figure out what kind of future she wants for herself as she struggles with teenage insecurities and bullying, her relationship with her mom, and her budding friendship (or is it something more?) with her new class project partner, Claire. Yoshitani’s vibrant and colorful stylized illustrations beautifully meld the various iterations of Starfire and the Titans with the live-action versions of those characters. Together with Tamaki’s punchy writing, this coming-of-age story of identity, family, friendship, and saving the world is skillfully brought to life in a quick but nuanced read. These layers are most strongly displayed as the story draws parallels between cultural differences between the generations as evidenced in how the characters address bullying, body positivity, fatphobia, fetishization and sexualization, and feminism. This title addresses many important concepts briefly, but well, with great pacing, bold art, and concise and snappy dialogue. The cast is broadly diverse in both primary and secondary characters.
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking. (Graphic fantasy. 14-16)Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-126-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
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