A potentially intriguing experiment runs aground.
Worlds collide and characters come to life when four young writers discover the limits of their creative powers.
Haunted by the deaths of their sisters Maria and Elizabeth, the motherless Brontë quartet seeks to escape small-town life and limited futures through their shared-world stories. When Emily balks at her and Anne’s exclusion from tales of Verdopolis, older siblings Charlotte and Branwell reluctantly readmit their sisters—literally as well literarily, for Verdopolis is a realm manifested through their strong imaginations…and an uneven bargain with an untrustworthy spirit. There, the four encounter semisentient characters, some growing aware of their frequent revisions and intent on hunting down Verdopolis' creators. Loosely based on the real Brontës’ juvenilia and drawing heavily on their published works—violent but variable Rogue is an ur-Heathcliff, Zamorna a Mr. Rochester—Verdopolis and its inhabitants are shifting and shallow, ornately detailed but lacking depth. The fictional Brontës are equally underdeveloped, hewing closely to their biographically documented roles: plain Charlotte despairs of becoming a governess; braggart Branwell fears obscurity; eccentric Emily loves the wild moors; and prim Anne is unflinchingly honest and overly preachy. The frivolous and erratic worldbuilding and the childish Brontës’ capricious actions undermine Coakley’s serious contemplations of creativity, class, and guilt.
A potentially intriguing experiment runs aground. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1034-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
A standing ovation.
Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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