OUR BROTHERS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Name: OUR BROTHERS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
Author: Jonathan David Kranz
ISBN: 978-1-62779-050-5

by Jonathan David Kranz ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

A dry mystery, an interracial relationship, and a quiet struggle against provincial tyranny make for a choppy-but-promising...

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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

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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ARCADIA BURNS

From the Arcadia Trilogy series , Vol. 2

by Kai Meyer & translated by Anthea Bell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 12, 2013

Mafiosa Rosa is rarely likable, but this tough survivor takes control of her own life, determined not to be controlled,...

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A shape-shifting Mafia capo insists on romance amid dark family mysteries.

The death of her sister and aunt in Arcadia Awakens (2012) have left Rosa Alcantara the head of a Sicilian Mafia clan. Her love affair with Alessandro, capo of the rival Carnevare family, makes both of them vulnerable to vicious members of their own families. It's bad enough that they lead different Cosa Nostra clans, but their magical abilities are at odds as well. The Alcantaras become giant snakes, while the Carnevares become panthers, leopards and lions. Rosa mostly ignores the family business while she investigates the brutal rape she endured a year and a half before. Her investigations reveal unsettling truths: Nothing in her pre-Mafia past, neither the rape nor the death of her father, is unrelated to Cosa Nostra. Her own family has engaged in heinous crimes against her and the rest of the Mafia. A climactic battle—partially described in a six-page cellphone conversation between Rosa and Alessandro—ties up a few loose ends and leaves the rest for the next volume.

Mafiosa Rosa is rarely likable, but this tough survivor takes control of her own life, determined not to be controlled, assaulted, lied to or—quite literally—devoured . (Paranormal romance. 14-16)

Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-200608-0

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
ARCADIA FALLS
by Kai Meyer ; translated by Anthea Bell

- BOOK REVIEW
ARCADIA AWAKENS
by Kai Meyer ; translated by Anthea Bell

- BOOK REVIEW
PIRATE WARS
by Kai Meyer

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(ME, HIM, THEM, AND IT)

by Caela Carter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2013

Readers who relish self-indulgent inner monologue and expect dramatic arguments, seething resentment, tearful heartbreak,...

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A “good girl” experiences an unplanned pregnancy and its aftermath.

Evelyn is a classic good girl, earning top grades and excelling in the art studio as well as on the track. When her parents start paying more attention to their acrimoniously crumbling marriage than to their daughter, she punishes them by becoming drinking, drugging, sex-having Bad Evelyn. Unfortunately, Bad Evelyn’s exploits become a punishment for her, too, as her protection-free sex with Todd leads to an unplanned pregnancy. Evelyn’s situation is the stuff of classic YA problem novels: What will she do about her pregnancy? How will she live with her choices? Will her heart, in fact, go on? Fearing expulsion from her competitive and deeply conservative Catholic high school, Evelyn relocates to Chicago to live with her aunts Linda and Nora and their daughters while she makes her choices and protects her GPA. Evelyn is a tough nut to crack, and she’s not particularly likable, but through all her self-contradictory crabbiness and emotionally withholding fears, readers may see someone recognizably real. First-time author Carter drags her narrative out, making readers angst along with Evelyn as she chronicles every week of her pregnancy and beyond.

Readers who relish self-indulgent inner monologue and expect dramatic arguments, seething resentment, tearful heartbreak, unspoken anxieties, unexpected friendships and ultimately, graceful reconciliation, will not be disappointed. (Fiction. 14-16)