Gripping and unsettling.
Ruthie will stop at nothing to find her missing best friend.
After her mother dies, Ruthie Hayden returns to her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. Though she isn’t keen on living with her now-sober father, she’s ecstatic to be reunited with her best friend, Zahra Gaines. Traces of their friendship still linger in scrawled script on playground equipment, but Zahra is gone. At first, it’s assumed she ran off with her boyfriend, Ben Peavy, but when he returns from a camping trip alone, Zahra is declared missing. Ruthie immediately becomes obsessed with finding her. She ingratiates herself with Zahra’s friends, investigates places she frequented, and even follows Ben. It quickly becomes clear that Zahra hid things from everyone around her and struggled with secret trauma. The more Ruthie learns, the less she feels like she really knew Zahra—but maybe, she thinks, she’s the only one who does. Ruthie hurtles toward the truth, propelled by a need to find out where Zahra is now and what dark forces drew her there yet not ready for what she might find. Ruthie’s desperate quest to find her friend thrums at a fever pitch. The reveal of Zahra’s fate unfolds in an eerie crescendo that’s both well earned and unnerving. Zahra is biracial (black/white), and Ben is Koyukon Athabaskan. The author includes thoughtful commentary about the ways that Zahra’s and Ben’s races affect their treatments as victim and suspect.
Gripping and unsettling. (Mystery 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59514-854-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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