Paranormal Activity meets The Exorcist in this chilling, well-crafted tale of a black teen girl’s struggle to make sense of...
A terrifying illness tied to the occult threatens the life of a black girl who blogs about beauty.
Fifteen-year-old Laetitia writes a popular blog about what she calls “divanation,” or making herself up like a diva—which she aspires to be. But when she loses her voice and begins to feel ill, Laetitia’s hair and makeup tips give way to increasingly dark entries about mysterious burning pains on her skin and graphic visions of death and torture. Laetitia tries to shift her focus to a racially charged police shooting in her community and the protests that follow, but the illness worsens. When doctors dismiss Laetitia’s problems as psychological, Laetitia, her mom, and her grandmother look to their Christian faith and a local voodoo practitioner for answers. Laetitia wonders if something demonic has taken over her body—or perhaps it’s something benevolent. Laetitia’s ordeal is told primarily through her “found” online journal. The blog posts, written in a pitch-perfect black teen girl’s voice, are accompanied by police and social-services reports, hospital records, and eerie black-and-white photographs. The collection of documents is putatively edited by the fictional scholar of the paranormal “Montague Verano.” Laetitia’s story, the second in the Diary of a Haunting series, is unpredictable, mesmerizing, and scarily realistic.
Paranormal Activity meets The Exorcist in this chilling, well-crafted tale of a black teen girl’s struggle to make sense of horrifying forces within her. (Horror. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6441-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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
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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