Another funny, lighthearted romp from Bates.
The successful comedy series that began with Awkward (2012) continues by focusing on the girl everyone loves to hate, Chelsea, Queen of the Notables at Smith High School.
When her battling parents decide to divorce, they send 17-year old Chelsea on a college-level seminar program in Cambodia. Chelsea resists her fellow students and her enthusiastically friendly professor, Neal, until a comedy of errors throws unsuspecting Chelsea and Neal into the middle of a drug deal gone bad. The police arrive and arrest Neal for dealing drugs, a charge usually resulting in a death sentence. Chelsea and the other students realize that somehow they will have to try to free their professor on their own. Even with this dark scenario, Bates uses Chelsea’s extensive flirting skills and the talents of intimidation that won her the high school popularity crown in her pursuit of the real villains. Going beyond thriller-comedy tropes, she also delves into Chelsea’s personality. Chelsea has always believed she’s just a dumb blonde who can’t cope with schoolwork, but with this challenge, she realizes that she has another kind of intelligence—one that allows her to compete with an international gangster. Readers get an inside view into the good side of the popular girl, showing that she has as many insecurities as the geeks do; she just hides them more successfully.
Another funny, lighthearted romp from Bates. (Chick lit/suspense. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-6939-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing.
When someone murders the renowned founder of an oppressively rigorous Washington, D.C., school, three students—all boys of color—emerge as prime suspects.
The police haul in a trio of Urban Promise Prep students, two Black and one Salvadoran, for questioning following the murder of Principal Kenneth Moore. For J.B. Williamson, Urban Promise’s strict rules and regulations are suffocating, but his luck seems to turn when he finally makes a tentative move forward with his crush. Jokester Trey Jackson, meanwhile, does his best to ensure his place in the big basketball game, and no one—not even his tough-as-nails Uncle T—can stop him. Ramón Zambrano dreams of one day owning a restaurant. In the meantime, he gets by hustling pupusas at school and refusing to succumb to pressure from his beloved cousin César, the feared leader of the Dioses del Humo gang. At Urban Promise, one false move can cost a college-bound future. Unfortunately, all three boys engaged in public spats with Principal Moore before his death; to clear their names, they must investigate and uncover the killer’s identity. In a masterful use of multiple points of view from both the main protagonists and secondary characters, Brooks weaves a tale of intrigue, doubt, and hearsay with ease, doling out crucial tidbits and clues. Each gradual reveal prods readers to reconsider and reassess. Featuring a sharp examination of systemic inequality in urban schools and Black and Latine boyhood, this novel delivers in spades.
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-86697-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Han’s impressive ear for and pitch-perfect reproduction of the interactions between not-quite-adult older teens make this an...
Can teenage love ever be forever?
Isabel (Belly) from The Summer I Turned Pretty (2009) and It’s Not Summer Without You (2010) finishes up her freshman year at college somewhat unconvincingly committed to Jeremiah Fisher, one of the two brothers with whom she has spent summers since she was small. Isabel becomes furious to learn that Jeremiah had sex with another girl from their college in Cabo on spring break, but he wins back her affections with a grand gesture: a proposal of marriage. Caught up in the idea—she will plan a summer wedding! they will attend college as a married couple!—Isabel tries ignores her misgivings about Jeremiah, the appalled silence of her mother and her own still-strong feelings for Jeremiah’s older brother, Conrad. It’s both funny and believable when Jeremiah insists he wants to dance the wedding dance to “You Never Can Tell” from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Han gives a satisfying nod to wedding-planning fantasies even while revealing their flimsy basis for an actual marriage. A final chapter in 23-year-old Isabel’s voice reveals the not-so-surprising happy ending.
Han’s impressive ear for and pitch-perfect reproduction of the interactions between not-quite-adult older teens make this an appealing conclusion to this trilogy romance among bright middle-class young people. (Fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9558-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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