While Hirsch has created what could be an exciting concept, the reality is slow-paced and anticlimactic.
Hirsch’s latest (The Darkest Path, 2013, etc.) is an epidemic novel with a twist.
A virus has struck Black River Falls. It doesn't sicken or kill its victims—it simply robs them of their memories. Teenager Cardinal Cassidy is one of the few uninfected in town. Together, he and his former bully-turned–best friend (who is infected) take care of a group of other infected children with nowhere to go. While Cardinal himself has no home to return to, he has everything under control. Then two things happen: he meets a girl, and the National Guard turns the town over to a ruthless private corporation. As the safety of his town is threatened, Cardinal must deal with new feelings and new revelations about the virus. In addition, he must confront the demons of his past. Unfortunately, narrator Cardinal spends so much time meandering into his memories—the story is structured as a “letter” to his older brother, addressed as “you”—that the plot suffers. While there are moments of beauty in Cardinal’s many flashbacks, they often slow down the story’s progress. When things finally pick up and Card must take action to save his town, it’s too little, too late to spice up this book. Cardinal is biracial, with a white dad and possibly African-American mom, but this fact feels almost irrelevant, as it does little to inform his character.
While Hirsch has created what could be an exciting concept, the reality is slow-paced and anticlimactic. (Science fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-39099-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
An emotional story that beautifully encompasses many sensitive topics.
Two best friends must navigate changing relationships during their first year of high school.
Jack and Immie have been inseparable since they were 7. But as ninth grade begins, Jack becomes more focused on soccer, and Immie finds herself looking for answers about her biological father. She’s always believed he was just a sperm donor, but when her mom shares personalized CDs he made but won’t say more—“he deserves his privacy. This was the arrangement we agreed upon”—Immie realizes that isn’t entirely true. When Jack isn’t as supportive of her quest for answers as Immie has hoped, she feels the distance between them grow. At the same time, Elijah, a sophomore soccer player, steps into her life, and she’s left to navigate her growing feelings for both boys. While the supporting characters’ storylines feel more like vehicles for exploring the love triangle and various heavy social topics, the complex leads are well developed, particularly Jack, whose anxiety and panic attacks highlight the importance of mental health support for boys. Both Immie’s and Jack’s stories are fully explored: Part One is told through Immie’s first-person voice, Part Two through Jack’s, and Part Three follows both of them in the third person. Meiser examines real topics that affect many teens and tweens in a mindful and respectful way. Main characters are cued white.
An emotional story that beautifully encompasses many sensitive topics. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781665948227
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A riveting fictional snapshot of one Tanzanian boy who makes himself matter.
Some call Habo a zeruzeru—a zero-zero—nothing. Others willingly pursue the riches his albino body parts will bring on the black market in Sullivan’s intense debut.
With his white skin, shaky, blue, unfocused eyes and yellow hair, 13-year-old Habo fits nowhere in his chocolate-brown Tanzanian family—not with his brothers who shun him, nor even with his mother, who avoids his touch. Did this bad-luck child even cause his father to abandon him at his birth? Only Habo’s sister, Asu, protects and nurtures him. Poverty forces the family from their rural home near Arusha to Mwanza, hundreds of miles away, to stay with relatives. After their bus fare runs out, they hitch a ride across the Serengeti with an ivory poacher who sees opportunity in Habo. Forced to flee for his life, the boy eventually becomes an apprentice to Kweli, a wise, blind carver in urban Dar es Salaam. The stark contrasts Habo experiences on his physical journey to safety and his emotional journey to self-awareness bring his growth into sharp relief while informing readers of a social ill still prevalent in East Africa. Thankfully for readers as well as Habo, the blind man’s appreciation challenges Habo to prove that he is worth more alive than dead. His present-tense narration is keenly perceptive and eschews self-pity.
Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-16112-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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