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ROYCE ROLLS

A smart, satirical edge separates this Hollywood chick-lit from many others.

White high school senior Bentley Royce’s reality TV world and her family are falling apart. There’s no promise of another season for Rolling with the Royces, but can Bent make this one a record-setter and keep her family together?

Bent has been a TV star since the age of 12. On the show, she is “Bad Bentley,” an unruly teen, but that’s not how she sees herself. The other Royces struggle with their identities as well, unable to differentiate between reality TV and real life. With the help of Mexican corporate head Diego Sanchez and her brown-skinned friend, Venice, she comes up with a plan to create the perfect season. In helping her family, Bent learns who she wants to be. In this sendup of the modern media world, Stohl evolves Bent from a damsel in distress to a leader, even if things don’t go as planned. Stohl realistically represents Los Angeles as a diverse community with a large Latino population, though most of the main characters are wealthy and white. Within that primary-cast limitation, this funny, fast-paced read also explores identity, tragedy, and rallying around the people you love. Hilarious, emoji-bedecked footnotes from vapid RWTR–developer “the Dirk” add fizz to the breezy third-person narration: “Reminder: pls destroy this footage. It can never surface. Ever. Anywhere. ?”

A smart, satirical edge separates this Hollywood chick-lit from many others. (Fiction. 12-18)

Pub Date: April 4, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4847-3233-5

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Freeform/Disney

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017

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INDIVISIBLE

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

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THE CHANGING MAN

A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.

After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.

Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.

A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9781250868138

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023

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