A gay Canadian teenager’s mettle gets tested hard both at school and on the trail.
As if the struggle to make passing grades and cope with severe test anxiety aren’t bad enough, Marisa has to endure homophobic comments and constant harassment from Aimee, a sneering classmate and former friend, not only in high school, but even on a day hike when she’s paired with her tormentor and fellow classmate Dawn during a weekend extra-credit survival camp. Worse yet, by blowing off several safety rules, Aimee manages to injure her leg and lose the backpack containing both the emergency phone and, it turns out, her insulin pump. Beddia really piles up the challenges, even throwing in a thunderstorm and a plane crash, but she gives her protagonist a good grounding in precisely described wilderness survival skills and a cool head under pressure—both of which repeatedly come into play as they weather the crisis. Marisa’s ability to cope when the going gets tough will strike readers as admirable, and the lack of a tidy resolution to the personal conflict adds a note of realism to the end. The cast of this novel set in Québec registers as White; Marisa has a close male friend who wears makeup, and in Dawn, a new possible partner.
A suspenseful survival tale well stocked with both physical and ethical challenges. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781989996133
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Rebel Mountain Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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