An entertaining, distinctive voice addresses a serious and timely subject with intelligence and insight.
A 14-year-old girl’s predatory teacher takes advantage of her crush on him in this YA novel.
Navigating your freshman year can be difficult, but at least auburn-haired Coral Wilene Anderson can ride the bus to Charles Creek High School with her best friend, Delainey Cleveland. Cheerleader Delainey has a new circle of A-list friends; she tries to include Coral, but it’s not a good fit. Team captain/queen bee Brancy Weaver and her moneyed clique wear sexy designer outfits, drink, steal, and make out in public, all unthinkable in Coral’s straight-laced family. A bright spot is Mr. Satchel Patterson, the algebra teacher; Coral has a ginormous crush on him and is thrilled when her parents hire him to tutor her in math. After a diary-related disaster, Coral gets an undeserved reputation as a snitch, blowing up her social life. When she bursts into tears during tutoring, Mr. Patterson is kind and supportive; he listens, supplies a handkerchief, gives her a hug—and kisses her. He begs her not to tell and she agrees, since she’s no snitch, and besides, the kiss is heavenly. The immoral Mr. Patterson continues his disturbing, predatory grooming, leading to serious consequences. Eadie, who has written several books, gives Coral a vividly slangy, hyperbolic teenage voice, especially in her diary’s catch phrases, such as “Paging God. Urgent knee-mail.” Coral’s emotions are all on the surface, but her narration also reveals subtle undercurrents: her parents’ overly strict, infantilizing rules; Mr. Patterson’s sly, careful manipulation of her naïveté and vulnerability; and the victim-blaming that Coral faces in the aftermath of revelations, even from her family: “My father didn’t look at me too much anymore or talk to me. He said he was ashamed.”
An entertaining, distinctive voice addresses a serious and timely subject with intelligence and insight.Pub Date: July 30, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-66-419092-2
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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