A slow-paced novel that takes on weighty topics.
Star diver Ingrid is trying to figure out why she had her first diving accident.
The Austin high school junior, who has a concussion and insomnia, is desperate to remember what she saw right before she fell that threw her off so she can feel confident returning to practice. The teen and her mom are barely managing on Ingrid’s nurse mom’s salary. Diving is Ingrid’s passion and her last connection to her estranged dad, a former diver himself. Ever since they witnessed the humiliation of her father’s leaving, Ingrid has distanced herself from the three neighbor boys who had been her closest friends in their affluent cul-de-sac, but now she is drawn back to Van, her former best friend and the boy she is secretly in love with. When Van, seeing her light on every night, confesses that he too has insomnia, they begin to spend late hours in Ingrid’s room while her mom is at work. Their romance grows even as they figure out what is going on with clandestine activities taking place in the empty house next door. A secondary theme regarding an inappropriate adult-teen sexual relationship is unfortunately not thoroughly explored. Ingrid’s deep exploration of her emotions feels realistic, but the deliberate, earnest, night-by-night description of Ingrid and Van’s relationship plods along. Most characters are presumed White. Ingrid’s father is Jewish, and her mother is a Swedish immigrant; Van is biracial (Japanese and White).
A slow-paced novel that takes on weighty topics. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25735-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Several yards short of a touchdown.
A transgender boy starting over at a new school falls hard for a popular cheerleader with a reputation to protect in this debut.
On the first day of senior year, transgender boy Pony locks eyes with cisgender cheerleader Georgia. They both have pasts they want to leave behind. No one at Hillcrest High knows that Pony is transgender, and he intends to keep it that way. Georgia’s last boyfriend shook her trust in boys, and now she’s determined to forget him. As mutual attraction draws them together, Pony and Georgia must decide what they are willing to risk for a relationship. Pony’s best friend, Max, who is also transgender, disapproves of Pony’s choice to live stealth; this disagreement leads to serious conflict in their relationship. Meanwhile, Georgia and Pony behave as if Pony’s trans identity was a secret he was lying to her about rather than private information for him to share of his own volition. The characters only arrive at a hopeful resolution after Pony pays high physical and emotional prices. McSmith places repeated emphasis on the born-in-the-wrong-body narrative when the characters discuss trans identities. Whiteness is situated as the norm, and all main characters are white.
Several yards short of a touchdown. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294317-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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