A horror novelist for adults (Extremities, 1998, etc.) tries a different tack with this whiny but intense girl-meets-dog (and boy) story. Volunteering at an animal shelter, prickly loner Rachel finds a kindred spirit in the newly arrived, savagely feral dog she dubs “Grrl.” A compulsive writer, Rachel is inspired to work on a nightmarish, dog’s-eye view of street life that her creative-writing teacher urges her to finish and submit to a competition; meanwhile, Rachel is making another connection, this time with Griffin, a withdrawn new classmate. After some wary circling, Griffin offers his backyard as a pen for Grrl—but Rachel returns to the shelter to discover that Grrl’s already been euthanized. Though she tends toward trite self-analysis (“What do you do when you’re too smart for the freaks, but too much of a freak for the smart kids?”) and is given to tirades about her parents’ character flaws, people who don’t spay their pets, and like topics, Rachel’s emotional intensity, conveyed both in her fierce narrative and in long passages from her story, is compelling enough to draw readers along. Less compelling is the ending, in which Griffin snaps her out of a bout of wild, destructive grief, and the two adopt another, friendlier, stray dog. Still, fans of tales about teen writers, or stories with animal themes, will pant after this. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 12, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-37278-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
Budding zoologist Daria lives in 2094, 70 years after an environmental crash; the near-extinction of many species of animals puts her in the enviable position of helping replenish Earth by raising creatures in a home zoo. Her family is cooperative (if not always agreeable) and financially able to help her feed and house llamas, hornbills, and binturongs. When her mother announces that Fen, an exchange student from the planet Chela, will be staying with them, Daria wonders if the tall grey alien will fit in. Fen, however, loves animals to an extraordinary degree, and Daria gains a companion and a sympathetic helper, who is oddly taciturn on the subject of Chelan fauna. Gilmore (Jason and the Bard, 1993) charts this story carefully, crafting the awkward nuances that give rise to cultural—or in this case, interplanetary—misunderstandings. Fen is a convincing alien; he’s humanoid, but markedly different from Daria, and his propensity for changing color with his emotions leads to an intriguing scene in which he tries to communicate with a chameleon. Underlying the growing friendship and understanding between Earthlings and Chelans is the slowly revealed horror of what has happened on Chela—an environmental disaster as devastating as a nuclear blast. Gilmore shows that Earth might end, not with a bang, but without a bleat, meow, bark, or chirp. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-57511-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
A touching novel about the conflicts that arise in a "combined" family after a divorce, and a teen's growing realization and acceptance of her father's imperfections. Tess used to be a swimming champ, but she gave it up, because of reoccurring nightmares and because her politician father seemed to value her successes more than he valued her. Now married to his second wife, Kate, he is putting the same pressure on Tess's half- sister Laura, who competes on the trampoline. Tess lives with her mother on weekends, and with Kate and Laura the rest of the week; she'd rather spend more time with her mother but is torn between the two households. Unbeknownst to her family, Tess is involved in a "green" guerrilla group, staging protests for animal rights and environmental issues. When the group gets caught by the police, the dysfunction in her two families becomes more apparent. The warm characterizations save all the clichés surrounding broken families; this engrossing Australian tale has a refreshing view of children struggling with the fallout from divorce. Tess's growing awareness of her dad's imperfections and his realization of his own shortcomings make the ending not only happy, but believable. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-531-30115-X
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
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