A dry mystery, an interracial relationship, and a quiet struggle against provincial tyranny make for a choppy-but-promising...
Three teenagers in a New Jersey resort town bond over death and petty corruption.
Both Rachel and Ethan, seen through interwoven chapters, have recently lost brothers. Ethan's dead brother, Jason, gets to narrate his story through year-old journal fragments interspersed throughout the novel. Rachel's own dead brother, Curtis, is a silent cipher, a lost child with Down syndrome viewed only through Rachel's memories of caregiving, never treated as an individual with thoughts or hopes of his own. The deaths of both boys are somehow connected to Happy World, a boardwalk amusement park that dominates their hometown. Curtis died in an accident seemingly of his own fault, half a year before ocean-hating Jason drowned off the edge of the jetty. Now, six months later, slacker Rachel just wants to make sense of her life. Her quest introduces her not just to Ethan, but to Leonard, the former park employee who's taken the fall for Curtis' accident. A seemingly standard coming-of-age arc is touched by unsolved mysteries, for Happy World's owner is disturbingly interested in Rachel's friendship with the two boys. Spare storytelling focuses on the tiny details of Rachel and Ethan's world rather than emotional resonance, leaving enough unspoken that it's sometimes difficult to follow the timeline of events.
A dry mystery, an interracial relationship, and a quiet struggle against provincial tyranny make for a choppy-but-promising debut . (Fiction. 14-16)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-050-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
A solid, warmhearted Sapphic romance showing how joy emerges when the bullies aren’t in charge.
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Young, bullied in middle school for her then-undiagnosed autism, believes she’s solved her social life challenges.
Following her rules (like “Rule #4: Always keep the topic of the conversation on the other person”)—even when that means hiding her true self, as her therapist points out—at least leads to people treating her “like a human being.” So it’s unfair when her boyfriend, Daniel Solomon, dumps her, drunkenly telling everyone she lacks personality. He’d invited her to attend beach volleyball camp, and even though she doesn’t enjoy kissing him and is strangely unbothered about the breakup, she plans to use the camp to make him want to get her back—proving that he was wrong about her being “cute but boring.” Ellie and her social circle at school are cued white; her group of new camp friends comprise a mix of religions, ethnicities, races, sexualities, and gender expressions. Also unlike school, at camp “the people who normally hide in the shadows to protect themselves get to live a little without constantly being judged.” The biggest complication is Sierra Levine, the white-presenting daughter of a beach volleyball legend. Ellie can’t understand why she’s so drawn to Sierra—until she finally gets it, complicating everything. Although the secondary characters are minimally developed, the pacing is nice and light. Schae’s pleasant debut offers a humane, compassionate view of teens supporting each other in pain and joy.
A solid, warmhearted Sapphic romance showing how joy emerges when the bullies aren’t in charge. (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9798217033263
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking.
Sixteen-year-old Mandy considers herself the anti-Starfire: Unlike her scantily clad superhero mother, she doesn’t have superpowers, can’t fly, and doesn’t even own a bathing suit.
Mandy dyes her hair and dresses in all black to further call out how different they are. Mandy’s best friend, Lincoln, whose parents were born in Vietnam, insightfully summarizes this rift as being down to an intergenerational divide that occurs whether parents and children come from different countries or different planets. Mandy tries to figure out what kind of future she wants for herself as she struggles with teenage insecurities and bullying, her relationship with her mom, and her budding friendship (or is it something more?) with her new class project partner, Claire. Yoshitani’s vibrant and colorful stylized illustrations beautifully meld the various iterations of Starfire and the Titans with the live-action versions of those characters. Together with Tamaki’s punchy writing, this coming-of-age story of identity, family, friendship, and saving the world is skillfully brought to life in a quick but nuanced read. These layers are most strongly displayed as the story draws parallels between cultural differences between the generations as evidenced in how the characters address bullying, body positivity, fatphobia, fetishization and sexualization, and feminism. This title addresses many important concepts briefly, but well, with great pacing, bold art, and concise and snappy dialogue. The cast is broadly diverse in both primary and secondary characters.
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking. (Graphic fantasy. 14-16)Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-126-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
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