A pleasurable, emotional, and authentic coming-of-age story.
Sixteen-year-old Baylee must navigate life against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Baylee lives in a suburb of Toronto. She has had a crush on her guy friend Freddie for years but believes he could never like a fat girl like her. Baylee is also talking to Alex, whom she met online, but the energy with Freddie shifts, and it seems like something’s about to happen. Just as Baylee’s love life is starting to look up, the Covid pandemic hits, and she has to contend with its impact on her budding relationships as well as keep her sister, who has serious physical and cognitive disabilities, safe. The treatment of Baylee’s body size feels realistic: She is a confident young woman who is also plagued by negative self-talk about her weight. Baylee’s relationship to herself, her sexuality, and her partners is realistically complex. She does not always make the right decisions, and though she does go through a process of learning to love and accept herself, her self-esteem is not neatly fixed. Without being explicit, the story largely focuses on Baylee’s sexual awakening, framed by the high stakes of the pandemic. This is not a typical romance—Baylee is not searching for the love of her life, and the sexual and romantic experiences she has help her discover who she is. Sex is treated with respect and reverence but not as obligatorily monogamous. Main characters read White.
A pleasurable, emotional, and authentic coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-320668-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up.
A grim, modern-day manifestation of the Peter Pan tale drawn from subtle, dark elements in the original text.
Wendy Darling is a sweet, naïve 17-year-old who just moved to Chicago. One night, Peter Pan comes through her open window, expecting an empty house and instead becoming enamored with the girl inside. Wendy herself is immediately enchanted by Peter, whose boyish charm and good looks convince her to join him for a night on the town along with his spunky and snappy ex-girlfriend Tinkerbelle. During the course of a single night, Wendy runs into more of Peter’s connections, including a collection of orphans he houses off the grid, a Detective Hook eager to bring him down, and other counterparts from the source material (including the racist caricature of a Native girl, gracefully realized here as a three-dimensional young Ojibwe woman). But as the night goes on and Peter’s facade grows more transparent, the frightful truth at his center threatens the safety of everyone involved. Eschewing literal magic, Ancrum’s remix is spellbinding and psychologically compelling despite a slower-moving middle. The haunting truth surrounding Peter is well earned and disturbing, a perfect—and bleak—transformation of the character for the 21st century. Wendy is Black, Peter and Tink are White, and the supporting cast represents myriad racial and queer identities.
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26526-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
A killer read.
A manipulative teen sets his sights on destruction.
When Crystal Giordano, who’s Puerto Rican and Italian American, recognizes new student Aaron Fortin as the Speaker—the masked streamer her friends obsessively follow—she blurts out that fact at their lunch table, not realizing the havoc that will follow her revelation. Aaron insinuates himself into the friend group, easily winning over “Extremely Online” Harmony and standoffish Paul (all three teens are white). Meanwhile, closeted Trevor (who’s Black and Muslim), goth Gayle (who’s white), and Crystal herself are harder nuts to crack. Crystal begins to suspect that Aaron has a dark side, but when he releases her private video diary to the entire school, the exposed secrets drive a possibly insurmountable wedge between her and her friends. But when she realizes Aaron has something huge planned for prom night, she knows it’s up to her to save the day. A clean-cut teenage amalgam of Charles Manson and Slenderman, Aaron employs a variety of techniques to control his online followers and real-life peers. The point of view alternates between Aaron and Crystal, putting readers right in the middle of the deadly cat-and-mouse game. Cesare keeps the tension ramping up, while the stakes rise higher and the murders keep coming. Horror fans will have a tough time putting this down once they start reading.
A killer read. (content warning, resources) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781454954248
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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