The anatomy an abusive relationship. At 17, Alex still mourns the mysterious accidental death of her mother years ago and yearns for affection or even just more than a trailed-off half-sentence from her emotionally absent father. She feels invisible and unimportant, except to her best friends since early childhood, high-achieving Bethany and earnest goofball Zack. When Cole, a dreamy transfer student, lands in Alex’s tutoring classroom and starts flirting with her, asking to read her poetry, then asking her on a date, Alex is swept away on a cloud of romance. But when Cole starts isolating her, pinching her and then punching her, Alex begins living the nightmare of an abusive relationship. Brown (Hate List, 2009) tackles another taboo but much-discussed topic with authority and authenticity, and she doesn’t let her victim completely off the hook. Every time Cole crosses a line—physically or verbally—readers will root for Alex to break up with him. They will read on with disappointment and sympathy as she forgives him again and again before finally breaking up with him after an especially violent confrontation. It’s a little cheap to write a motherless girl, desperate to be lavished with affection, as the victim here, as if only a girl with deep-seated emotional problems would get sucked into an abusive relationship. Still, readers will be enthralled, horrified and ultimately relieved when Alex gets the mostly happy ending she deserves. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-08695-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Gripping and authentic in the ways it portrays grief and shows how moving forward means having to let go.
After her father dies, a teen drops out of high school, loses her job, and embarks on a four-week journey through the California backcountry.
Everyone in the Bear Creek Community Service program is assigned a nickname as part of starting over with “a blank slate.” No one needs to know your past or whether you’re there by choice or court order. All that matters is the present: working on hiking trail maintenance. For Atlas James, or Maps, as she’s now known, it’s an escape from the poor decisions she’s made since her father’s death from cancer and a tribute to him. One of his dying wishes was to hike the Western Sierra Trail with her—the same one she’ll now be spending the summer working on with Books, Junior, Sugar, and King. Maps is immediately drawn to group leader King, and as secrets are revealed, the two act as magnets, attracting and repelling one another. Maps’ tangible grief is centered as she copes with the loss of the only person who understood her and always had her back. Gradually, as they clear brush, dig drainage, and battle the backcountry and their pasts, a sense of family is forged among the crew. The palpable romantic tension between King and Maps propels this beautifully written story. Junior is coded Black; other major characters read white.
Gripping and authentic in the ways it portrays grief and shows how moving forward means having to let go. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780063088580
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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