Achingly tender and leavened with hope.
A girlfriend for hire and a skeptical boy find genuine love.
Eighteen-year-old Regan Albright works at Elite Elect, an upscale mountain resort two hours from Manhattan, where wealthy guests go to die. The day before their Death Dates—which appear on everyone’s body at birth—they undergo peaceful euthanasia, avoiding a potentially unpleasant end. Regan and her gay best friend, Micah Lowry, work for the resort’s Romeo-and-Juliet service, curating dating experiences secretly paid for by teens’ parents. In these roles, the pair live decadently before returning home to the dilapidated staff housing; Regan has her single mom, who struggles with alcohol and works service jobs at the resort, and Micah has loving foster parents, the Acostas. Regan’s latest client, irritatingly perfect English teen Jude Daly, accidentally overhears a conversation that gives the game away. Jude isn’t thrilled by anything to do with the resort—and Regan finds him insufferable. Still, he asks Regan to go along with the arrangement. She might get a permanent contract for satisfying clients like the famous Dalys, with their vodka business and research institute that’s trying to find a way to survive Death Dates; he just wants to bring his parents some peace. The white-presenting pair grow from barely tolerating one another to falling deeply in love, as they debate living fully, letting go, and being emotionally vulnerable. By turns philosophical, funny, suspenseful, and moving, this work builds a convincing world populated with sympathetically fallible people.
Achingly tender and leavened with hope. (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9781536251739
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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