A satisfyingly chilling mystery with a relatable amateur sleuth.
Teenage criminology students find themselves investigating what should have been a fake murder mystery.
Every year, the criminology program at J. Everett High hosts its Grand Game, which tests students’ crime-solving abilities. This year’s winning team will be awarded $30,000, an enticing amount for best friends Mexican American Dulce Castillo and Japanese American Emi Nakamura, who plan to visit Golden Age mystery novelist Dorothy L. Sayers’ home in England after they graduate. Puerto Rican classmate Xavier Torres is assigned to play this year’s murder victim, so the student body isn’t shocked when his white ex-girlfriend, Sierra Fox, rushes into the cafeteria to announce that Xavier is dead. But the game becomes a tragic reality when everyone realizes that Xavier really is dead—and Sierra appears to be his killer. Sierra believes insightful and introspective Dulce is the only person who can solve Xavier’s murder and clear her name, but the girls have been estranged ever since a traumatic dispute over the circumstances surrounding Dulce’s mother’s death. At first, Dulce refuses to help, but when another classmate turns up dead, Dulce sets aside her resentment toward Sierra to find Xavier’s real murderer before anyone else gets hurt. A smattering of nuanced suspects and interstitial flashback chapters offer readers ample opportunities to form their own theories. But the complicated interpersonal relationships between seemingly unrelated characters reveal the most compelling secrets.
A satisfyingly chilling mystery with a relatable amateur sleuth. (Mystery. 13-18)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780593857892
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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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