Enjoy it while it’s fresh.
Secrets simmer in the summer heat in Spotswood’s (The Radical Element, 2018, etc.) beach read.
The four redheaded Garrett girls are the well-known orphans of Remington Hollow, Maryland. In a town so small that everyone knows everyone, struggles are kept hidden below the surface. Nineteen-year-old eldest sister Des feels left behind, struggling with self-imposed obligations to care for her younger siblings and the family legacy. Next in line is Bea, 18, who has just graduated from high school and realizes that the life she planned for herself is no longer the life she wants. Rising junior Kat has a flare for the dramatic but begins to learn that a life lived authentically might be more fulfilling. Youngest sister Vi, 15, has been living as an out lesbian but hopes this summer may bring the young love she has yet to experience outside of her YA romances—especially when she develops a crush on beautiful Latina Cece. Narrative focus shifts between chapters to highlight the perspectives of individual sisters, with notes of Little Women and a dash of Gilmore Girls. Frequent references to contemporary young adult literature, especially in bookish Vi’s chapters, require an audience steeped in the genre, while references to current pop culture limit the time range of the appeal. Though the characters are endearing and the plot entertaining, the fleeting trendiness makes this a one-summer wonder.
Enjoy it while it’s fresh. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-2219-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
This story is necessary. This story is important.
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is a black girl and an expert at navigating the two worlds she exists in: one at Garden Heights, her black neighborhood, and the other at Williamson Prep, her suburban, mostly white high school.
Walking the line between the two becomes immensely harder when Starr is present at the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, by a white police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil’s death becomes national news, where he’s called a thug and possible drug dealer and gangbanger. His death becomes justified in the eyes of many, including one of Starr’s best friends at school. The police’s lackadaisical attitude sparks anger and then protests in the community, turning it into a war zone. Questions remain about what happened in the moments leading to Khalil’s death, and the only witness is Starr, who must now decide what to say or do, if anything. Thomas cuts to the heart of the matter for Starr and for so many like her, laying bare the systemic racism that undergirds her world, and she does so honestly and inescapably, balancing heartbreak and humor. With smooth but powerful prose delivered in Starr’s natural, emphatic voice, finely nuanced characters, and intricate and realistic relationship dynamics, this novel will have readers rooting for Starr and opening their hearts to her friends and family.
This story is necessary. This story is important. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-249853-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A solid sophomore novel celebrating love that begs for a soundtrack.
Queer Black girls fall in love at a summer music festival.
When dating the top basketball recruit in Indiana turns disastrous, ruining her socially, emotionally, and in her mother’s eyes, perpetually in love 16-year-old Olivia Brooks begs her best friend, Imani Garrett, to take a summer road trip to the Farmland Arts and Music Festival in Georgia. Imani agrees on one condition: Olivia cannot hook up with anyone on the trip. Meanwhile, Toni Jackson is heading to Farmland for the first time without her musician-turned-roadie dad, who was killed 8 months ago. Joined by her best friend, Peter Menon (whose surname cues him as Indian), Toni is trying to figure her life out—college or something else? She believes that if she performs in the festival’s Golden Apple amateur competition, the truth will become clear. The four meet in Georgia, and when all the solo slots in the competition are full, Toni and Olivia agree to enter as a duo and help each other with their individual quests—Toni’s to perform on stage, Olivia’s to be distracted from the upcoming judicial hearing over violating behavior by her ex-boyfriend and to win the prize of a much-needed car. Although Imani and Peter feel more like devices than well-developed characters with substantial relationships to the protagonists, the exploration of Olivia’s tendency to adapt to others’ expectations of her is wonderfully nuanced, and her relationship with Toni is delightfully swoon-y.
A solid sophomore novel celebrating love that begs for a soundtrack. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-66223-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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