by Katia Raina ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2019
Unfortunately, even Team Edward may find Ruslan difficult to defend.
Love triangles tend to make people angry.
This novel—a coming-of-age story set in the Soviet Union in the early days of perestroika—may make readers upset for other reasons. Sonya is a 15-year-old Jewish girl, and the guy she’s dating might genuinely be one of the worst people on Earth. Ruslan is violent and bigoted, and he tends to patronize Sonya. He says things like, “it’s time you learned life a little…you little hedgehog in a fog.” Readers may wonder if Sonya is entering into an abusive relationship, especially when Ruslan tries to beat up his romantic rivals, like her other love interest, a perpetually tan Jewish boy named Misha Aizerman. The novel might have provided valuable insight into survivors of abuse if Ruslan were the least bit appealing, but the attraction seems to be mostly chemical. His eyes are apparently enchanting, because Sonya describes them every few chapters. Debut author Raina’s prose is often repetitive and clumsy, though from time to time it’s possible to glimpse the novel she meant to write, a moving story not only about love, but about political freedom and religious identity.
Unfortunately, even Team Edward may find Ruslan difficult to defend. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9995416-3-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Young Europe Books
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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by Sarah Arthur ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 2024
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development.
A portal fantasy survivor story from an established devotional writer.
Fourteen-year-old Eva’s maternal grandmother lives on a grand estate in England; Eva and her academic parents live in New Haven, Connecticut. When she and Mum finally visit Carrick Hall, Eva is alternately resentful at what she’s missed and overjoyed to connect with sometimes aloof Grandmother. Alongside questions of Eva’s family history, the summer is permeated by a greater mystery surrounding the work of fictional children’s fantasy writer A.H.W. Clifton, who wrote a Narnialike series that Eva adores. As it happens, Grandmother was one of several children who entered and ruled Ternival, the world of Clifton’s books; the others perished in 1952, and Grandmother hasn’t recovered. The Narnia influences are strong—Eva’s grandmother is the Susan figure who’s repudiated both magic and God—and the ensuing trauma has created rifts that echo through her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. An early narrative implication that Eva will visit Ternival to set things right barely materializes in this series opener; meanwhile, the religious parable overwhelms the magic elements as the story winds on. The serviceable plot is weakened by shallow characterization. Little backstory appears other than that which immediately concerns the plot, and Eva tends to respond emotionally as the story requires—resentful when her seething silence is required, immediately trusting toward characters readers need to trust. Major characters are cued white.
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development. (author’s note, map, author Q&A) (Religious fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593194454
Page Count: 384
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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by Kiku Hughes ; illustrated by Kiku Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 2020
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery.
Time travel brings a girl closer to someone she’s never known.
Sixteen-year-old Kiku, who is Japanese and white, only knows bits and pieces of her family history. While on a trip with her mother to San Francisco from their Seattle home, they search for her grandmother’s childhood home. While waiting for her mother, who goes inside to explore the mall now standing there, a mysterious fog envelops Kiku and displaces her to a theater in the past where a girl is playing the violin. The gifted musician is Ernestina Teranishi, who Kiku later confirms is her late grandmother. To Kiku’s dismay, the fog continues to transport her, eventually dropping her down next door to Ernestina’s family in a World War II Japanese American internment camp. The clean illustrations in soothing browns and blues convey the characters’ intense emotions. Hughes takes inspiration from her own family’s story, deftly balancing complicated national history with explorations of cultural dislocation and biracial identity. As Kiku processes her experiences, Hughes draws parallels to President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and the incarceration of migrant children. The emotional connection between Kiku and her grandmother is underdeveloped; despite their being neighbors, Ernestina appears briefly and feels elusive to both Kiku and readers up to the very end. Despite some loose ends, readers will gain insights to the Japanese American incarceration and feel called to activism.
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery. (photographs, author’s note, glossary, further reading) (Graphic historical fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19353-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
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