Good, escapist entertainment.
Thrills and action follow a teenage movie star as she tries to escape a shadowy figure who has threatened to kill her.
Vivian knows the threat to her life is real, since her movie-star mother was murdered just six months ago despite protection from the police, so she heads into Mexico to escape the killer. Her bus breaks down, and someone steals her handbag with her passport and money, leaving her stranded on the side of the road, in disguise but wearing Gucci sneakers. Nick, a drop-dead-handsome, English-speaking boy from the bus takes her under his wing, and they find themselves running from both the FBI and a frightening thug working for the local gangster boss. At first, Vivian acts the spoiled movie star, but as Nick ridicules her privileged outlook, she struggles to overcome it and begins to learn how real people live. Although the book contains a standard chick-lit–romance theme (why else would Nick be so gorgeous?), Sabel keeps the focus on action and does it well as Vivian tries to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. The villains seem cartoonish and the escapes impossible, but realism isn’t the point. The author also includes a goodly amount of well-written Spanish phrases, most of which she translates.
Good, escapist entertainment. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-223195-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors.
A biracial high school student questions the truth surrounding her sister’s disappearance and unexplained return.
Sixteen-year-old Cassandra “Casey” Cureton despises her older sister, Sutton. The girls have a White mom and Black dad, and unlike her sister, Casey keeps her hair natural. She prefers the company of best friend Ruth, who is Black, and her online music fandom community. Dedicated cheer captain, flat-iron enthusiast, and rising senior Sutton is a mean girl with a convincingly sweet public persona. When Sutton goes missing on their last day of classes, their parents rally their affluent suburban Seattle-area community to band together and bring Sutton home. Weeks later, she is found physically unharmed but unable to remember anything. While her parents adjust to Sutton’s bittersweet homecoming, Casey realizes there’s something deeply unnerving about the sister who has returned—and it has nothing to do with her amnesia. As Casey races to unmask Sutton’s secrets, she discovers how her paternal family legacy protected Sutton, shedding new light on the powerful bonds of blood. Debut author Meade offers an intriguing, emotionally resonant novel wrapped in supernatural realism. Guided by layered themes of generational inheritance, Black identity, and the reclamation of history, the first-person narrative is told through Casey’s point of view with flashbacks from Sutton. Twists abound, but readers may crave a fuller ending than the action-packed but quick resolution.
A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors. (author’s note) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781728264479
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
A story of coming out and coming-of-age in a post–9/11 world.
As an Iranian American Muslim teen, Amir Azadi has long pondered what it would be like to come out to his parents.
In fact, he keeps a mental tally of all the positive and negative comments his parents make about gay people. But everything comes crashing down when school bullies photograph Amir kissing Jackson, the football player he’s been secretly dating. They give Amir an ultimatum: $1,000 in hush money or they will show his parents the photo. On the brink of emotional collapse, Amir runs away, landing in Rome, where he meets Jahan, a proudly gay Iranian/Dominican man, and his eclectic friends. Amir embraces the newfound freedom to be himself and experience the joys of gay culture and community. But as his family desperately searches for him and relationships with his new friends become complicated, he finds himself missing home and feels the fear of being out ebb away. The story moves back and forth in time between these events and the airport interrogation room where, following a family altercation on the plane home, Amir tells his coming-out story to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. The narrative structure will keep readers riveted as they try to piece together events. Ahmadi’s writing is gripping, taking readers through the myriad emotions a gay Muslim teen experiences growing up in a country whose government is looking for an excuse to demonize Muslims.
A story of coming out and coming-of-age in a post–9/11 world. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-20287-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
