A remarkable, beautifully rendered debut.
A teen bruja-in-training receives troubling visions about imminent gun violence at her school.
Sixteen-year-old Yolanda Nuelis Alvarez is a Black Dominican American girl raised in the Bronx within a close-knit support system of family and friends. Strongest of all is her bond with her bruja grandmother, Mamá Teté, who acts as Yolanda’s mentor in her spiritual journey in communion with their guides and ancestors as part of a long-standing family tradition. As her initiation approaches, Yolanda begins having disturbing visions about Ben, the new student who recently started attending Julia De Burgos High, a White boy with a history of racist behavior. Ben joins the Brave Space Club, the activist group that Yolanda heads, and intentionally causes conflict with the other students. Certain that there is a looming threat to her school, a hitherto welcoming space for students from marginalized communities, Yolanda tries to understand her responsibility as a community organizer and as a bruja before tragedy strikes. Avila’s novel is unabashedly political, with a determined, powerful, actively engaged protagonist on a coming-of-age journey that is both distressing and hopeful. It’s an intersectional novel both on a personal level—Yolanda is Black, Latina, queer, and deaf (she has cochlear implants)—and in a wider sense as it thoughtfully, candidly engages with racism, violence, and privilege while centering Yolanda’s growing bonds of family, community, activism, and spirituality.
A remarkable, beautifully rendered debut. (Paranormal. 13-18)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781646142439
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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