It’s clear someone has to die, but just who it will be keeps readers wondering to the very end. (Thriller. 15 & up)
“The brochure said nothing about angst-filled dorms or psychic roommates.”
Instead of going to local UCLA, 17-year-old Sarah is spending the next four years at Wetherly, a fictional all-women’s college in New England, all because her Nana caught her having sex with the most popular guy at her high school. Constantly substituting sex for love (so she doesn’t end up miserable, like her absent parents), without female friends, slightly depressed and definitely insecure, she’s the perfect victim. In this edgy debut thriller, the first-year student’s not sure why she’s drawn to her beautiful, narcissistic orphan roommate, Maddy, and Maddy’s wealthy, enabling best friend, Agnes, but suddenly she’s sharing an off-campus house and an injured deer (which readers won’t know whether to laugh or cringe at) with them. And she’s not sure why she stays even after she realizes that Maddy is a pathological liar, that equally manipulative Agnes is trying to pretend she’s not in love with Maddy and that she’s caught between the two housemates vying for each other’s attention. It’s a constant who’s manipulating whom, with secrets, sexual tension and a Gypsy’s deadly prediction always at the forefront, as the story’s slow burn finally explodes. It's all given immediacy and subtle sarcasm through Sarah’s first-person narration, which will have readers second-guessing throughout.
It’s clear someone has to die, but just who it will be keeps readers wondering to the very end. (Thriller. 15 & up)Pub Date: June 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59990-628-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues...
He’s in remission from the osteosarcoma that took one of his legs. She’s fighting the brown fluid in her lungs caused by tumors. Both know that their time is limited.
Sparks fly when Hazel Grace Lancaster spies Augustus “Gus” Waters checking her out across the room in a group-therapy session for teens living with cancer. He’s a gorgeous, confident, intelligent amputee who always loses video games because he tries to save everyone. She’s smart, snarky and 16; she goes to community college and jokingly calls Peter Van Houten, the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, her only friend besides her parents. He asks her over, and they swap novels. He agrees to read the Van Houten and she agrees to read his—based on his favorite bloodbath-filled video game. The two become connected at the hip, and what follows is a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive Van Houten to their hilariously flirty repartee, readers will swoon on nearly every page. Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire. He takes on Big Questions that might feel heavy-handed in the words of any other author: What do oblivion and living mean? Then he deftly parries them with humor: “My nostalgia is so extreme that I am capable of missing a swing my butt never actually touched.” Dog-earing of pages will no doubt ensue.
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues to make it through Hazel and Gus’ poignant journey. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-47881-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deep dive into trauma, with light at the end of the tunnel.
A teen’s sense of self is unsettled by a kidnapping.
After a prologue reveals the hero’s captive status, the story introduces Sayers Wayte as he was before—an uber-wealthy, hard-partying, privilege-flaunting Texas teen who’s falling in with a meaner crowd (including a friendship with a bully who ridicules Sayers’ best friend for his bisexuality and targets a vulnerable nerd in encounters that rapidly escalate to disturbing levels off-page). The first act balances Sayers’ charm and potential with his character failings while keeping readers guessing who the kidnapper will be (and what their motivations are). Once he’s been kidnapped, Sayers must attempt to manipulate his kidnapper by playing along with who the kidnapper wants him to be—at first, it’s a ruse to create chances to try to escape, but eventually Sayers’ identity and feelings toward his kidnapper begin to blur. A dangerous discovery pushes his mind to the brink to protect him and keep him alive. Unlike hostage stories that end with the rescue, Roe digs deep into what happens in the aftermath as Sayers tries to learn how to be a functioning individual again and struggles with rebuilding his entire self. There are no easy answers for Sayers’ issues, but with determination and help from key friends, he finds hope. Aside from a character with a Guatemalan father, most characters default to White.
A deep dive into trauma, with light at the end of the tunnel. (Thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305173-7
Page Count: 512
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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