An evocative (if predictable) coming-of-age story set in the heart of the Caribbean.
In Williams’ YA novel, a teenage girl in St. Kitts finds first love while struggling to cope with her mother’s declining health.
Gwendolyn Richards bickers with her mother on a regular morning as the family is preparing to begin another day. With roosters crowing in the yard and Gwen’s dad getting ready for a humdrum shift at the nearby sugar factory, mother and daughter share local news until Gwen’s best friend, Sharon, arrives to walk with Gwen to school. Along the way, Sharon teases Gwen about Lenwell Turnbull, a classmate who’s clearly smitten with Gwen (“Even Ms. Bridgewater probably see how all you looking at each other on de landing when you tink nobody watching”). As the story unfolds, readers are treated to flirtatious high school moments between Gwen and Lenwell, complete with note-passing and meaningful glances across classrooms. Gwen grows closer to Lenwell just as her mother begins to fall ill with a disease; the deeper her feelings grow for Lenwell, the sicker her mother becomes, and the correlation is confusing for Gwen. Everything comes to a head when Gwen’s father hatches an unexpected plan to secure Gwen’s future, one that seems to leave no room for Lenwell. Told from Gwen’s perspective throughout, the narrative follows her daily life, which consists primarily of days at school and at home. While the scenes can begin to feel repetitive—the pacing lags as each day bleeds slowly into the next—the author does an admirable job of showing how a teenage crush can grow into a deeper and more meaningful relationship. The story also thoughtfully explores the ways in which adolescents continue to look to their parents for guidance, alternately mirroring, resisting, and ultimately growing through those relationships. While the book would have benefitted from additional setting details to help ground the reader in time and place, the Caribbean-English dialogue adds a rich, authentic voice to this unhurried tale. What the story lacks in suspense it makes up for with emotional nuance and thematic depth, tackling issues such as caregiving, young love, and finding happiness in the shadow of loss.
An evocative (if predictable) coming-of-age story set in the heart of the Caribbean.Pub Date: June 1, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 149
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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