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Twelve Feet Down

Name: Twelve Feet Down
Author: John Penteros

by John Penteros ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2016

An infectious coming-of-age story about a self-effacing but gifted young man trying to discover his place in the world.

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A debut YA novel chronicles a teenager’s crusade to construct a refuge.

It’s been a rough year for Joe McKinnon. In a car accident, Joe lost both his father and his leg. But now Joe is taking the building skills that he absorbed from his dad to raise his own hideaway—a hidden, underground condo—in the woods near his home and without his mother’s knowledge. While Joe wants to handle this project all by himself, he nevertheless recruits his father’s friend Fred Fergussen, who lines up the supplies for him and makes suggestions. An on-site accident soon endangers the project, adding to the guilt that Joe feels about lying to his mother so he can get out of the house to work on his condo. But before long, the teen’s elderly neighbor Mr. Pruitt and Tin Man, a roofer friend of his father, are in on the secret, with Joe’s grudging acquiescence: “Anyone who wants to build a condo in the woods, come on down! Just push the one-legged kid aside.” The project gets delayed because of other developments in his life: a possible girlfriend, a speech he fears giving, a friend’s injury, a fatal car accident. Despite the tragedies that are never too far away, the protagonist’s intelligence and his willingness to trust pay off during some difficult moments. In Joe, Penteros has created a vivid character who bears the cares of the world on his shoulders, which is why others are willing to assist him. In this effective tale, they see all the good in Joe, even if he can’t often see it in himself. Told in Joe’s voice, Penteros’ spare narrative reflects an average teen’s life, with the character often giving too much weight to mundane events, slowing down the story. But the fully developed protagonist skillfully handles some obstacles that life throws into his path. And along the way, Joe emerges from tumultuous times with the help of friends he didn’t know he had and a sympathetic mother he too often tried to push away.

An infectious coming-of-age story about a self-effacing but gifted young man trying to discover his place in the world.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2016

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 301

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

by Stephen Chbosky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 1999

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Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999

ISBN: 0-671-02734-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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MONSTER

by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...

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In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.

Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)