Best for readers hoping that someday Justin Bieber might appear to sweep them off their feet.
Dee falls for Milo, a pop singer–turned–movie star, during a summer job working on a movie crew.
Her artistic confidence shaken by a rejection from an honors arts program, Dee’s summer before her senior year looks miserable. But it improves when an Oscar-winning director arrives in her small town to film a movie. Working with on-set props soon reveals another side of Dee’s artistic talent, and her descriptions of movie production from a behind-the-scenes perspective are some of the novel’s most interesting moments. Less successful is the romance, which feels more like a storm of confusion between privileged white teens than a passionate whirlwind. The novel spans just a few weeks, and the teens’ chemistry never really develops, perhaps because working on the film and avoiding the press mean few dating opportunities. Many readers will expect phone and text messages to fill the gap, but both are conspicuously absent, though each character has a cellphone. The spotty communication eventually makes Dee’s quick claim, after a single make-out session, that Milo is her boyfriend surprising; even more surprisingly, he seems to agree. And the storyline involving Dee’s jealousy over Milo’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend co-star nearly ends before it begins. Messages about the pitfalls of social media harassment also feel underdeveloped.
Best for readers hoping that someday Justin Bieber might appear to sweep them off their feet. (Romance. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-49801-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sanderson (Legion, 2018, etc.) plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too.
Eager to prove herself, the daughter of a flier disgraced for cowardice hurls herself into fighter pilot training to join a losing war against aliens.
Plainly modeled as a cross between Katniss Everdeen and Conan the Barbarian (“I bathed in fires of destruction and reveled in the screams of the defeated. I didn’t get afraid”), Spensa “Spin” Nightshade leaves her previous occupation—spearing rats in the caverns of the colony planet Detritus for her widowed mother’s food stand—to wangle a coveted spot in the Defiant Defense Force’s flight school. Opportunities to exercise wild recklessness and growing skill begin at once, as the class is soon in the air, battling the mysterious Krell raiders who have driven people underground. Spensa, who is assumed white, interacts with reasonably diverse human classmates with varying ethnic markers. M-Bot, a damaged AI of unknown origin, develops into a comical sidekick: “Hello!...You have nearly died, and so I will say something to distract you from the serious, mind-numbing implications of your own mortality! I hate your shoes.” Meanwhile, hints that all is not as it seems, either with the official story about her father or the whole Krell war in general, lead to startling revelations and stakes-raising implications by the end. Stay tuned. Maps and illustrations not seen.
Sanderson (Legion, 2018, etc.) plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too. (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-55577-0
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
SEEN & HEARD
A cute, feel-good coming-of-age story.
A DNA test reveals that Abby has a sister she never knew about—and they head off to summer camp together to uncover family secrets.
When 16-year-old Abby’s best friend and secret crush, Leo, asks her to do a mail-in DNA test with him, Abby mostly agrees to give him a little push, as he clearly wants to find out more about his birth family. While the results don’t help Leo, they bring a shocking result for Abby: She has a full-blooded sister, 18-year-old Instagram wellness star Savvy, who lives in another Seattle suburb. After meeting and realizing their respective parents used to be friends, the two girls decide to meet again at summer camp. Unfortunately, camp gets off to a rough start; Savvy is a stickler for rules, Abby didn’t read the rules in the first place, and Leo is a camp chef, which only intensifies Abby’s feelings for him. With a summer full of new friends, hijinks, delicious food, and digging up secrets, Abby has to learn to lean in and own up to the complicated parts of life. This is a heartwarming novel of friendship and family, with a little romance. The story and characters have depth and emotion, touching on topics of broken friendships, losing a loved one, deception, social media, and pursuing what you love. Abby, Savvy, and Leo’s adoptive parents are White; Leo is Filipino.
A cute, feel-good coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23730-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
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