With a plot that reads like an overstuffed gumbo recipe and heavy and obvious foreshadowing, this ambitious story spends too...
Hayden Holland, a white woman living in Brooklyn with her French-Senegalese best friend, Del Chauvet, finds out on her 18th birthday that she has inherited a house from her mother, Ella.
Ella had a mysterious death: She disappeared into the woods of their hometown of Promise, Colorado, a decade ago, never to be seen or heard from since and was declared dead in absentia. Hayden and her father moved away soon after to New York, but problems followed them there. Hayden kept having nightmares and later had to be home-schooled, along with seeing a therapist, after a violent incident with another student at school. Her father, Thomas, lost tenure due in part to his obsession with theories too extreme for his university to support. Hayden visits the old house, along with Del, seeking answers to lingering questions and trying to make sense of the conditions her mother attached to the codicil to her will. Can she fulfill her mother’s wishes while uncovering secrets so long withheld from her? Superfluous prose makes for a long read, although the ending, ironically, is rushed and anticlimactic. Inconsistent and inorganic character reactions mixed with all-too-convenient plot devices make suspension of disbelief difficult.
With a plot that reads like an overstuffed gumbo recipe and heavy and obvious foreshadowing, this ambitious story spends too much time on exposition and not enough on character development. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-12425-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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