A coming-of-age story with high drama and plenty of heart.
Moving from Chicago to the suburbs turns a teenage girl’s life upside down in Doyle’s latest YA novel.
After her parents split up, Ella Bennett and her mom leave their home in the Chicago neighborhood of Lincoln Parkfor a tiny Cape Cod cottage in the Illinois suburb of Snow Ridge. When Ella first encounters fellow sophomore Grace Childs, she knows that she has nothing in common with the “tall, gorgeous, undoubtedly popular” girl who lives in the mansion next door. When Grace’s mom offers Ella a ride on her first day of the school year, it leads to an invitation to join Grace’s table at lunch; the table itself is marked with a brass plaque honoring the Childs family. The girls’ relationship takes a dark turn once Ella joins the cheer team and Grace fails to make the cut. A freak fall sidelines Ella from the squad, and it turns out to the beginning of all-out war between the new girl and the queen bee. At the same time, Ella is navigating her parents’ divorce—sometimes wisely, sometimes not. Her father’s new girlfriend, Cynthia, becomes Ella’s ally, but can Ella follow Cynthia’s questionable advice and still live with herself? Along the way, she learns who her real friends are—and what it means to be a real friend to others. As she did in Points (2020), Doyle takes the social and emotional lives of young people seriously in this novel. She explores what it means to be an outsider in a community with a long-established hierarchy while also showing how Ella adapts to her family’s new shape. Several of the choices that the protagonist makes during her feud with Grace have serious consequences, and some readers might feel like the people around her—her mom, her principal, the one cheerleader who is kind to her—let her off too easily. Other readers, though, will find her redemptive arc to be satisfying.
A coming-of-age story with high drama and plenty of heart.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Lang Verhaal Company
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia.
A teenage witch goes up against the evil king of the mountain to save a cursed village.
Witch-in-training Verity Vox has spent a year apiece in different villages, helping in any way she can as she learns her art. When it’s time to move on, she receives a sign that shows her where to go next. When the latest sign appears in the form of a note begging for help that floats down on a leaf, she’s eager for the challenge. Verity winds up in Foxfire, a village in the Appalachian mountains that’s been magically cut off from the rest of the world for years, leaving its people close to starvation. The root of their suffering is a man they know as Earl, who lives in the hills and strikes deals with the townspeople that ultimately cause crops to wither, folks to disappear, and the only bridge out of the valley to crumble. Verity is determined to change the villagers’ fortunes, but to do so she’ll have to face off against not just Earl but the ancient power of the mountains itself. Loosely based on the Germanic Erlking legend and told in a voice reminiscent of folktales, the story features a queer romance and a cast that presents white. The convoluted magic system undercuts the strong themes of reciprocity, poverty, and privilege, but Appalachian readers will instantly recognize home.
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890032706
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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