A wry, beguiling romance that’s passionate about faith and love.
Two devoutly religious teenage boys fall in love and struggle to find acceptance in this YA coming-out novel.
Charlie is a 16-year-old kid in a small Illinois town who loves theater and is gravitating from Roman Catholicism to a Baptist youth group. Tim is the son of the new pastor at Calvary Baptist Church and a student at Charlie’s high school; the two meet online and bond despite having opposing opinions on ice cream sprinkles and cargo shorts. Tim invites Charlie to church, where they weather a nosy parishioner. Charlie invites Tim to drama club; the two get in a car crash on their way to a bowling alley (with no injuries); and it seems as if they have a sunny future being “in love with Jesus and in love with each other.” Unfortunately, they are inhibited by the difficulties of making their relationship public. Charlie has an easier time of it: He comes out to a friend and his sympathetic drama teacher, neither of whom seems surprised by the news. But Tim is more furtive, having already been forced into therapy for his inclinations by his parents, and freaks out when Charlie holds his hand in drama club. It seems as if the only thing holding their relationship together is a small voice they hear in their hearts telling them that God accepts them. Shoemaker makes his characters’ religiosity and gay sexuality equally central—and harmonious—parts of their personalities, treating them seriously but in a usually lighthearted tone. He crafts complex, convincing characters and fleshes them out in supple prose and spot-on dialogue that’s split between awkward adolescent self-consciousness—“Okay, so I want to say something dumb but, it’s just that, I kind of almost maybe more than like you,” says Tim—and more knowing, adult reflections. (“Mother will love it and she will cry,’ Charlie muses about his bit part in a school play, “and she will bring me flowers and she will cry, and she will hug me afterwards like seventeen relatives suddenly died and she is so pleased that I was not among them and she will cry.”) Readers will root for Charlie and Tim to find their way through the thicket of anxieties and droll snark to happiness.
A wry, beguiling romance that’s passionate about faith and love.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2021
ISBN: 979-8490557258
Page Count: 153
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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