A clever and thoughtful investigation of teenage empowerment.
Two teenage girls turn the tables on high school misogynists in this YA novel.
Sixteen-year-old narrator Bethany Cummings lives in a swanky Chicago suburb where she doesn’t share the in-crowd’s values. Indeed, she has no close friends until her junior year, when she meets new female student Ash Bauer, who, like her, isn’t into coy flirting—although both still worry about how to please guys. After they encounter some jerkish male behavior, though, they realize that it’s time to reverse the dynamic. Bethany discovers a spreadsheet on her brother’s old MacBook evaluating various girls he dated, assigning them points for anything from a hug to a sexual act; when each girl reached 100 points, she got dumped. Bethany is disgusted and furious—but she also sees the perfect way to overturn the system. She and Ash develop a guy-rating spreadsheet that gives them new confidence and a measure of romantic success. But Ash becomes troubled by the new system, which hasn’t resulted in a jerk-free relationship and is, after all, ethically dubious. Bethany, who’s been gaining influence as a feminist activist, defends the new spreadsheet system, but her views are challenged when she meets a kind, respectful guy. Doyle, whose debut novel, Milked (2019), was written for an adult audience, here offers her first YA novel that tackles some mature themes. The spreadsheet proves to be a great hook for a story and a graphic way to capture the colder, more manipulative power dynamics of dating. That said, it’s never really acknowledged that people who are less attractive than Bethany and Ash might have some trouble adopting their tactics. The book’s humor is nicely balanced by moral complexity, and even Bethany’s brother, the inventor of the point system, is revealed to be a more complicated character than he first appears.
A clever and thoughtful investigation of teenage empowerment.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73395-034-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Lang Verhaal Company
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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