An effective, often moving tale of teen angst, heartache, betrayal, friendship, and self-discovery.
A teenage jock and a solitary outsider undergo profound changes when their lives unexpectedly converge in this debut YA novel.
Failing his pre-calculus class, high school football star Duke is assigned a tutor: brainy loner Tommy, whose shadowlike existence on campus barely registers with his peers. Duke is uncomfortable with Tommy’s extreme reserve but impressed with his ability to make what the athlete needs to learn understandable, especially when his grades soar. But this poignant tale doesn’t trace a predictable or sugarcoated path to a friendship between opposites. Duke, who has witnessed his cousin traumatized by violence, intuits that beneath Tommy’s reserve is “a meteor shower of sorrow.” Langan’s well-defined first-person narratives, switching between Tommy and Duke, reveal very different lives. Tommy’s painful story shifts back and forth in time, relating horrific childhood experiences with his drug-taking mother—unsparingly realistic and difficult to read—that scarred him, sparking feelings of guilt, anger, and loss. The book also recounts his rescue by loving grandparents and how bewilderment and a sense of betrayal closed him down emotionally after his abrupt loss of contact with his sole childhood friend, Roxy. The girl’s compassion and high spirits hid her own painful secret. Duke’s present-day narrative, meanwhile, encompasses a stable family, his passion for football, and his aching turmoil over how he lets his cheerleader girlfriend, Kristy, mess with his head. She insists that they pretend not to be involved at school so her dad won’t find out, seemingly not because Duke is a Black student and she is White. The reason is her religious fanatic father insists that she date someone of their faith. Duke’s distinctive voice reveals a 17-year-old gradually cultivating self-reflection and self-respect, influenced by his connection with Tommy and by the value he discovers in his growing friendship based on mutual respect with a girl named Charlie. (Their lively verbal interactions enjoyably leaven the tale’s emotional intensity.) Tommy’s realization that “I’m still that little boy afraid of what the world would take from him” is the beginning of his own ability to move on. Although a shocking event precludes a traditional, happily-ever-after conclusion, the story ends on a touching ray of hope.
An effective, often moving tale of teen angst, heartache, betrayal, friendship, and self-discovery.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68-433751-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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