Smart, sex-positive—and positively terrific.
A Christian teen has a medical problem that makes it impossible for her to have intercourse.
Monique is a 17-year-old Black Baptist preacher’s daughter in a small Texas town. Everyone expects her and her boyfriend, Dom, to do everything properly (read: no sex before marriage). However, because they’re in love and will eventually get married, Monique figures there’s no need to wait. But after two years together and secretly trying dozens of times, unsuccessfully, to have intercourse, Dom ends the relationship. Reeling from the breakup, Monique learns she has vaginismus—her vaginal muscles contract involuntarily, preventing penetration. The condition is caused by trauma, fear, guilt, or shame, and Monique has been raised to think of sex as dirty and bad. She wants to “fix” herself quickly and win Dom back, so she turns to two unlikely sources for help: Sasha, a seemingly straight-laced church girl, and Reggie, a troubled kid Monique’s father hopes to rehabilitate. Along her unorthodox healing journey, Monique makes some surprising discoveries about her family and, more importantly, about herself. As described in a note to readers, Monique’s story does much to raise awareness of vaginismus and directly confront toxic views about sex. Thanks to Goffney’s superb storytelling and dazzling prose, this candid exploration of a sensitive subject is also a heartfelt, funny, and irresistible read.
Smart, sex-positive—and positively terrific. (Fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-302484-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A standing ovation.
Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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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