A brisk tale of a teen heroine whom readers will grow to like.
In Jensen’s debut YA thriller, a self-indulgent California high schooler is out of her element in an unfamiliar Honduran jungle—and on the run from human traffickers.
Cheerleader London Carter doesn’t mind flaunting her family’s wealth at school, and she revels in her popularity. Her boyfriend Rivers dumps her mere days before the senior prom, but she quickly finds another date. Unfortunately, he takes her to a party that the cops ultimately raid, landing London in trouble despite the fact that she didn’t take part in the underage drinking or drug use. However, it’s the last straw for her parents, as she’s been in trouble for past misdeeds, including helping a friend cheat on a test. They send her to Honduras for the summer as part of a volunteer program assisting villagers in building a school. London is unprepared for the relative lack of amenities and the daily physical labor. She’s also dismayed to see Oliver Rodriguez, a student from her school who’s smart but arrogant; their mutual dislike is palpable. When armed men suddenly storm the village, both the locals and the volunteers flee. London hides in the jungle and later teams up with Oliver and 5-year-old villager Malaya. They all struggle to escape a human-trafficking drug cartel. Readers won’t initially have much sympathy for the endlessly complaining London, but Jensen ensures that the protagonist has some redeeming qualities. For instance, she’s seemingly immune to peer pressure; she says no to premarital sex, booze, and drugs, and she’s steadfast in her decisions. She’s also very good with children and shows great affinity for Malaya. The author offers lively descriptions of the jungle, which is filled with an array of wildlife, including colorful birds and hairy insects. Nevertheless, the protagonist’s evolution as a character lacks subtlety; at one point, she and Oliver actually discuss how much she’s changed since she left California. Still, it’s delightful to watch the changes unfold, and London’s developing relationship with Oliver is endearing.
A brisk tale of a teen heroine whom readers will grow to like.Pub Date: April 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71704-901-8
Page Count: 269
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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