Read it for the history lesson.
Three Chinese international students discern their destinies as they navigate living and studying abroad.
Flipping between time periods, the story follows two casts of characters. In present-day Ashford, Ohio, Pike, Tone, and Theresa are Chinese students at Eastern University. Pike is a free-wheeling rich kid who is forced to study physics (even though he’s really interested in Asian history) to keep the funds flowing. His roommate, Tone, has just been awarded a prestigious MIT fellowship to pursue his physics research. Theresa, Tone’s girlfriend, is looking for her big break as a stage actor. Although decades and miles apart, their lives mirror those of Chinese university students Hill and Lily and white American playwright Neil Peterson. Amid the horrors of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, the three do whatever it takes to ensure their stage production goes on. In Ohio, Theresa is given a lead in a play based on one that Peterson left unfinished. As the production moves forward, its ripple effects force the friends to confront their demons. When their lives take an unexpected turn, each character has to grapple with a difficult, life-changing choice. This is a worthy attempt at spotlighting the plight of international students in North America and contains many elements of a good novel—mystery, intrigue, betrayal, and romance. Too bad the absorbing plot can’t save the unmoving characters.
Read it for the history lesson. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1967-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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