Inspired by the author’s own loss of a sister to suicide, it’s sensitive and uplifting without being sappy.
It really is just a normal Tuesday…until it isn’t.
When Kai Sheehan’s older sister, Jen, commits suicide, her own life spirals out of control. The rage-filled white 16-year-old drinks, smokes pot, and pops prescription medication to numb her pain. Her tough-love–invoking best friends, TJ, a gay white boy, and Emily, a well-to-do girl with “cocoa” skin, attempt to support her, but there’s only so much they can do. Kai’s parents have, understandably, been too wrapped up in their own grief to help, so they send Kai to a “grief camp” for teens. Guided by her olive-skinned counselor, Marco Esposito, Kai talks, writes, and paints her way through the stages of grief. She also falls in love. Graham, a white boy whose brother died, makes Kai feel normal again. He understands what she’s going through in a way no one else does. She also forms close bonds with the other teens in her group, and with their support, she’s on her way to accepting she’ll never know why Jen killed herself. Loads of brand name-dropping and current pop-culture references will undoubtedly date this book. However, the timeless themes of love, loss, and moving forward will find a readership among those who are also grieving and need to know they’re not alone.
Inspired by the author’s own loss of a sister to suicide, it’s sensitive and uplifting without being sappy. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77138-793-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: KCP Loft/Kids Can
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A standing ovation.
Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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