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
An earnest but belabored story of love and cognitive disability.
A teen with Down syndrome runs away to find her boyfriend when her parents forbid their relationship.
Sixteen-year-old Rose Tremayne and her boyfriend, Jack, were made for each other. Jack, who was born with a brain injury, helps Rosie with reading and writing; Rosie calms his anger issues. But after a violent outburst, Jack is sent away—and Rosie’s parents think she should forget him. Rosie resolves to find Jack herself, taking the train to London alone and venturing into the city’s labyrinthine subway system. As she copes with transportation setbacks, she encounters assorted strangers—some kind and some with unsavory intentions. Though secondary characters lack depth, Rosie’s narration sympathetically expresses her determination, frustration, and naïveté in equal measure, and others’ patronizing and rude reactions to her disability are sadly realistic. However, much of the plot feels contrived. Despite Darbon’s efforts to show that Rosie is more than her Down syndrome, she doesn’t escape being a symbol of childlike innocence, a problematic trope. While a twist darkly demonstrates how people with intellectual disabilities can be targets of abuse, its execution is somewhat implausible. Portrayed primarily through Jack’s misspelled postcards and florid prose such as “The sun came out in my head and my heart grew wings and took me up to the moon,” the romance never quite feels three-dimensional; the ending, though touching, is rather pat. Most characters default to White.
An earnest but belabored story of love and cognitive disability. (author's note) (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68263-289-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Likable, well-rounded characters keep readers turning pages.
Oscar learns that life is a lot more complicated than frying donuts thanks to an unlikely romance, confronting the past, and dealing with heartache.
Desperate to be done with school in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Oscar is a determined senior with plans to one day operate the family’s Swedish food truck business and maybe even open his own cafe. When presented with an unusual opportunity to use his culinary skills to help prevent cafeteria food waste, he forms an unlikely friendship with academic all-star Lou. Though he resists at first, she becomes an integral part of Oscar’s life both in school and on the truck. The main characters are complex and well drawn, especially the wise and irresistible Farfar, Oscar’s Swedish paternal grandfather. Swedish-born Oscar has lived with Farfar since the age of 4, arriving in America after his father died; his mother had already left the family by then. Reck handles a grandfather-grandson conversation about condoms and consent with a deft hand, although the book contains mainly just PG–rated kissing scenes. He also addresses contemporary social justice activism, substance abuse, and Farfar’s coming-out story. Told in Oscar’s first-person voice, the plot drags a little, but a romance resolved and a moving show of support from friends-turned-family compensate. The inclusion of Swedish cultural elements is refreshing and adds interest. Most of the cast is presumed White.
Likable, well-rounded characters keep readers turning pages. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1611-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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