Peter's mother disapproves of Veronica because she's older and a girl and not Jewish, Veronica's mother disapproves of Peter because he is Jewish, but Peter and Veronica are friends—forever: "I swear to God that I'll never forget Veronica Ganz if she dies. And if I do, may I fall down dead!" "And I swear that if Peter Wedemeyer dies first, I'll remember him and make everybody else remember him or may I be struck down dead!" The pledge in the cemetery, Veronica deadly serious, Peter humoring her, is the apotheosis of their accord; life is harsher. Peter, fighting his family up to the last minute, finally gains permission to invite Veronica to his bar mitzvah—and then she doesn't come. Peter is hurt, resentful, outraged; that she is big and clumsy and afraid of parties, that he was thinking of his feelings (of being a hero) rather than of her feelings doesn't get across to him until after a summer that sees a change in Veronica too. What does come across throughout are the horrors of being a short twelve waiting to "shoot up," of having a mother whose pursuit of dust leaves no room for privacy, of plunging into a first evening party with girls. Some of its predecessors in the series have had a higher hilarity quotient but this is actively and acutely—and disarmingly—a boy in a bind.
Pub Date: March 21, 1969
ISBN: 014037082X
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969
Enjoyable, tragic, and very real.
Hiding one’s true self from others only leads to problems.
Gay Michigan teen Mark Davis’ world is rocked when he has to wear a dress as part of a basketball team talent show entry and discovers how much he loves it. This discovery ultimately leads to the end of his two-year relationship with his boyfriend and fellow classmate, John, because of John’s internalized homophobia. The angst of first love is quickly forgotten, however, when 17-year-old Mark meets classmate Ezra Ambrose in a Halloween store where Mark is shyly hiding from classmates as he prepares to buy another dress. Mark’s journey into the world of drag coincides with his college student brother Eric’s self-destructive descent into alcohol abuse—a descent with tragic ramifications. It’s a complicated story but one that buoys up well thanks to its mix of humor and realism. Readers who love wit that practically crackles with energy will be drawn to Mark’s first-person narration and may be surprised by the depths of emotion in his story. The book will be appreciated by adult caregivers for its frank observations about substance abuse and the many facets of and societal messages about masculinity. There’s a lot that happens, but that’s life, right? Characters default to White.
Enjoyable, tragic, and very real. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250843098
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Commendable ambition that may help readers look forward.
Already reeling from loss, a Black high school senior brings her OCD, anxiety, and depression into March 2020.
In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gethsemane Montego is a musical-theater–loving, BTS-fangirling, 16-year-old senior at New Rochelle High School. She and her two best friends—Jewish Korean valedictorian Tovah and Cuban American star quarterback Diego—attend the same high school where Geth’s security guard father died tragically three years ago during a shooting. Geth resents how quickly her mother has moved on—with a White man, at that—but, as best they can, her friends help her manage the increases in her anxiety and compulsions as well as her stifling grief. Awaiting admission results from Columbia is an added stressor, but as the coronavirus case numbers quickly shoot up, Geth faces multiple burdens and traumas. Police violence, racial inequity, hyperpartisanship, immigration, economic anxieties, and a complicated coming-out story all pile on top of the pandemic’s hefty body count. Geth is a likable, smart Gen Z protagonist in this modern epistolary work that combines diary entries, text messages, news reports, emails, and English lit essays to immersive effect. Wringing so much content, so much hurt, into a YA novel is a tall order that yields very mixed results. Still, whether through cutting humor or disparate political perspectives, Farley offers readers undeniable value in this retelling of recent, unforgettable history.
Commendable ambition that may help readers look forward. (Fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61775-975-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Black Sheep Press
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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