A vibrant, twisty, and entertaining yarn about an unlikely transplant growing deep roots.
A newly orphaned Los Angeles street punk, deposited in the countryside, learns to love the land in this coming-of-age YA novel.
Fifteen-year-old Ry Kinkead hangs around drug dealers and sex workers and cultivates sardonic alienation in an LA slum, but when his mother, Evangeline, overdoses, he’s sent to live with his deceased father’s sister, Thalia Kinkead, and her husband, Pete—both complete strangers—on their Loam, California, ranch. Ry warily settles into a family seething with tensions between Thalia, who’s snobbish and racist; the sympathetic but beaten-down Pete; and their obnoxious teenage son, LG, who hates working the land. Ry does, too, but he grudgingly does “useless farm crap” on the family’s cattle and walnut ranch, dreams of LA, and hangs with two new classmates: Paulie, the son of Mexican farmworkers and a provider of decent cannabis, and Melissa, who helpfully criticizes Ry as their relationship deepens. Ry’s attitude changes when he encounters a runaway horse belonging to neighbor Frame Ellis. In exchange for riding lessons, he helps out on Frame’s organic farm; he has a conversion experience when he realizes that “everything underneath my feet was freakin’ alive….If there’d been a church devoted to cucumber worship, I would’ve joined.” Then someone is involved in a catastrophic accident, Ry’s horse faces unforeseen difficulties, and a mysterious letter reveals dark family secrets. Smith’s fish-out-of-water tale features colorful characters sketched through evocative details, as when Pete is described as moving “like a few bones were doing all the work and the rest were just kicked back for the ride.” The novel also offers a rich, fine-grained portrait of rural life seen through the eyes of an exasperated young outsider. Ry is an appealing Gen-Z Huck Finn, an urban wiseass who slowly grows a horse-whisperer’s soul: “It took me a couple of seconds of frantically holding on to the saddle horn to understand the beat of the ride….My hips moved with that, a rhythm shared with Cherokee while everything else fell away.” The result is a captivating read.
A vibrant, twisty, and entertaining yarn about an unlikely transplant growing deep roots.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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