Relentlessly dark from start to finish.
Two brothers’ lives unravel until they are left with only each other and the lie they believe will keep them safe.
James lives with his extended family in small-town Louisiana, but following several tragedies he and his brother are soon left alone with only their mother. He’s scrawny and unpopular save for his best friend, Gabriel. Gabriel is mocked and ridiculed by peers and regarded as intellectually challenged but reads as likely being on the autism spectrum. He’s lumbering and embarrassing but a true friend, which is exactly what James needs when he comes home from school to discover his mother’s lifeless body. Gabriel hatches an outlandish and dismal plan to hide the fact that 15-year-old James and his 12-year-old brother, Danny, are now alone in their home so as to keep the brothers together and out of the foster care system. It involves hiding her body, scrounging food from garbage cans and dumpsters, and convincing a troubled and desperate woman to move into their home. The story is engrossing in the way of a train wreck, at times feeling like it teeters on the edge of exploitative with no real benefit. Trauma permeates the pages with no character left untouched. To be sure, this is a story of survival and survivors, but there is no hope to be found in it. Danny's distress is expressed in part through racist and homophobic hate speech, but these terms are not sufficiently contextualized. All main characters are white.
Relentlessly dark from start to finish. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68442-462-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Turner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping and atmospheric contemporary thriller that excels in portraying the complex intensity of its characters.
Relationship extremes take center stage in this debut about a teen navigating her new reality as an outcast following a life-changing event.
As Ellory grimly approaches her senior year, readers only know that she’s returning to her high school, seeking solitude after being suspended and spending the summer away at an art camp. Chapters flashing back to the previous year alternate with the present, slowly revealing the details of a tightknit but often jealous friendship among Ellory, Jenni, Bex, and their leader, Ret, as well as Ellory’s experience with a first love that was also rife with its own problems. Evocative phrasing steeped in the novel’s richly melancholy tone vaunts this story above simple melodrama. Tightly controlled pacing allows time for the audience to come to really care about Ellory even as they cringe at some of her more painfully desperate moments with her boyfriend, Matthias. The reveal of what happened junior year is horrifying though replete with a common-to-thrillers twist that careful readers will see coming. However, the conclusion is still satisfying. Ellory, Ret, Jenni, and Matthias seem to be white, Bex is Moroccan and French-Canadian, and there are ethnically diverse background characters.
A gripping and atmospheric contemporary thriller that excels in portraying the complex intensity of its characters. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0437-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
While Arnold has written a compelling flipped fairy tale and commentary on misogyny, she’s missed the mark for her intended...
Arnold (Bat and the Waiting Game, 2018, etc.) blends an abusive romance-novel relationship and intense feminist and patriarchal imagery with the classic storyline of a prince saving a damsel from the lair of a dragon.
In a gray, medieval world, Prince Emory of Harding makes his way toward a dragon’s lair to rescue a damsel and make her his bride, in the process bringing light to the land and glory upon himself. The damsel cannot recall who she is, and so Emory names her Ama. They return to Harding, where Prince Emory is crowned king, and his mother announces they will be wed in a few months’ time, and Ama will give birth to his heir. Ama must learn how to be a queen and is reminded repeatedly that Emory’s desires are what matters—she is never allowed to forget that he “saved” her. When she does not comply with his wishes, she is brutally and sadistically punished, sexually, psychologically, and physically. What if, instead of being the hero’s beloved, you are your abuser’s captive? The symbolism and imagery, as well as the meaning of the sexual violence that is perpetrated upon Ama, may go over the heads of less sophisticated readers. All characters are white.
While Arnold has written a compelling flipped fairy tale and commentary on misogyny, she’s missed the mark for her intended audience. (Fiction. 15-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-274232-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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