An important, difficult book that will appeal to girls who feel lost in the world.
In this hard-hitting YA novel, a teenage girl wrestles with low self-esteem, body image issues, and an eating disorder after she is unable to ingratiate herself into the popular clique at school.
As junior high begins, Katie Mills thinks she has found a clear path into the cool clique at school through her lab partner, Anica. However, after a shoplifting expedition spearheaded by Anica goes awry, Katie is more shunned by the upscale “Orchard Hills girls” than ever. Her next tactic is to try out for the cheer squad, but that also backfires when her tomboyish friend, Carly, gets picked instead of her. As Carly begins hanging out with the popular crowd and her other best friend, Dominic, acquires a new girlfriend, Katie feels more left out than ever. Her divorced parents don’t help matters: mom would rather harangue Katie for being pudgy than support her, while dad is preoccupied with spoiling his new daughter from his second marriage. After she overhears head cheerleader Amy Bowie throwing up in the bathroom after lunch, Katie decides to be more like the pretty, skinny, popular girls the only way she knows how: lose as much weight as possible by bingeing and purging. Soon, Katie’s secret threatens to get in the way of her burgeoning friendship with the cute new boy at school, Hunter, not to mention her existing relationships. Farnham (Click. Date. Repeat., 2014) has created a powerfully relatable character in Katie, whose struggles to fit in will ring true for many. Be warned though: the vivid first-person descriptions of Katie’s bulimia and the feelings she associates with bingeing and purging may be triggering for some readers. “After I eat, I can’t think about anything but the food churning around in my stomach, just waiting to be absorbed by my body,” she says. “My chest feels like it’s going to explode if I don’t get rid of the food.” Other intense issues covered by Farnham, albeit in a deft and sympathetic way, include divorce, bullying, and abuse.
An important, difficult book that will appeal to girls who feel lost in the world.Pub Date: April 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1500850333
Page Count: 312
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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