A hip, funny, wise story for teens and adults alike.
That most primal of coming-of-age narratives–cool kid gives high-school nerd a makeover–gets a fresh, smart reworking in this hilarious bildungsroman.
Needing an unofficial senior project to stave off boredom, perpetually slick, wise-assed big man on campus Matthew can think of none better than the salvaging of Michael, the class geek. Michael is "the kind that reads science fiction, plays Magic and gets all flushed and out of breath describing a computer game to his fellow geeks"; he has greasy hair, carries a filthy backpack and has a haunted look from years of bullying and mockery by the student body (hence his verbose reverence for Gandhian non-violence). Confident of his well-honed, and deftly rendered, ability to manipulate people, Matthew persuades the wary Michael to let him reconstruct his dorky image. The campaign has many uproarious fronts, from hair-care to planted rumors of Michael’s badass street-fighting chops to a subtle plot to undermine Michael’s redneck stepdad by convincing him that his favorite NASCAR driver is gay. Callow Matthew strives to convince earnest, honest Michael that perception trumps substance, but his plans come undone as people he thought were safely pigeonholed fail to respond to his button-pushing. Matthew’s hidden insecurities surface, and suddenly the story is about his own desperate need for formative influences, which duly emerge in an awkward relationship with Michael’s strange half-sister Chrissy and a horrific summer job at a masonry depot. Don’t be fooled by the "juvenile fiction" label. There’s enough foul language and disdain for education–"it was hard to think with the teacher yammering away about chemicals"–to give school librarians pause, but more importantly, Schilling’s prose is almost too good to waste on the young. He’s a wonderful comic writer, with a punchy style and colorful, nuanced characters. Matthew’s narrative voice, in particular, combines razor-sharp wit with a sublime superficiality; it’s a treat to watch Schilling steer deep insights through Matthew’s shallow waters.
A hip, funny, wise story for teens and adults alike.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-595-47495-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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