A “hard time” is what Thompson gives the grown-ups in this droll tale of two teenagers discovering that no good deed goes unpunished. Thanks to a story in her high school’s literary magazine featuring a dead teacher, Annie Ireland finds herself sentenced to five days in the local lockup as an “example,” then bundled off to a wilderness camp for hard-core offenders, and ultimately locked up in an underground behavior-mod cell. Fortunately, she has two loyal, if distinctly unconventional, allies: best friend Nemo Skank, nicknamed Arby, for “Roach Boy” (don’t ask); and Pantagruel Primo, a gnome temporarily inhabiting the body of a baby doll assigned to Annie’s care in Life Skills class. As usual, the author contrasts decent, levelheaded teens with savagely caricatured adults, meanwhile using the former (plus, in this case, Primo) as mouthpieces to dispense commonsense advice about coping with the perils of adolescence. Thanks to a wacky cast and situations that sometimes take an ominous turn, that advice never turns over-earnest—and Annie and Arby, a likable couple if ever there was one, come through it all triumphantly, wiser but not at all sadder. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85424-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
Categories: TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
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Many teen novels touch on similar themes, but few do it so memorably.
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Two struggling teens develop an unlikely relationship in a moving exploration of grief, suicide and young love.
Violet, a writer and member of the popular crowd, has withdrawn from her friends and from school activities since her sister died in a car accident nine months earlier. Finch, known to his classmates as "Theodore Freak," is famously impulsive and eccentric. Following their meeting in the school bell tower, Finch makes it his mission to re-engage Violet with the world, partially through a school project that sends them to offbeat Indiana landmarks and partially through simple persistence. (Violet and Finch live, fortunately for all involved, in the sort of romantic universe where his throwing rocks at her window in the middle of the night comes off more charming than stalker-esque.) The teens alternate narration chapter by chapter, each in a unique and well-realized voice. Finch's self-destructive streak and suicidal impulses are never far from the surface, and the chapters he narrates are interspersed with facts about suicide methods and quotations from Virginia Woolf and poet Cesare Pavese. When the story inevitably turns tragic, a cast of carefully drawn side characters brings to life both the pain of loss and the possibility of moving forward, though some notes of hope are more believable than others.
Many teen novels touch on similar themes, but few do it so memorably. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75588-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
Categories: TEEN ROMANCE | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
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Lara Jean prepares for college and a wedding.
Korean-American Lara Jean is finally settled into a nice, complication-free relationship with her white boyfriend, Peter. But things don’t stay simple for long. When college acceptance letters roll in, Peter and Lara Jean discover they’re heading in different directions. As the two discuss the long-distance thing, Lara Jean’s widower father is making a major commitment: marrying the neighbor lady he’s been dating. The whirlwind of a wedding, college visits, prom, and the last few months of senior year provides an excellent backdrop for this final book about Lara Jean. The characters ping from event to event with emotions always at the forefront. Han further develops her cast, pushing them to new maturity and leaving few stones unturned. There’s only one problem here, and it’s what’s always held this series back from true greatness: Peter. Despite Han’s best efforts to flesh out Peter with abandonment issues and a crummy dad, he remains little more than a handsome jock. Frankly, Lara Jean and Peter may have cute teen chemistry, but Han's nuanced characterizations have often helped to subvert typical teen love-story tropes. This knowing subversion is frustratingly absent from the novel's denouement.
An emotionally engaging closer that fumbles in its final moments. (Romance. 14-17)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3048-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Categories: TEEN FICTION | TEEN ROMANCE | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
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