A predictable and morally suspect love story.
Best friends clash as love is in the air.
Penelope has been best friends with Audrey and Ephraim since primary school, but things are getting complicated for these three amigos. Audrey has a new friend, Cherisse, who seems to exist solely to make Penelope miserable. And Eph is becoming increasingly withdrawn and distant. When Penelope starts dating moody pretty-boy Keats, things get really interesting—assuming it’s the first novel about teens readers have encountered. Events unfold from self-absorbed Penelope’s point of view, and readers will quickly grow tired of her “What about me?” attitude. Her lack of awareness is astounding, and the novel isn’t very self-aware either. When it’s revealed that Keats is manipulating Penelope, we’re meant to boo him, but when Eph does the same thing with another girl to deal with his feelings for Penelope, this John Hughes–worshipping white girl doesn’t even bat an eye. Keats is the most interesting character in the book, a brooding faux-intellectual with a self-worth complex and some serious issues with women, but readers are trapped inside Penelope’s head. These contemporary, apparently white teenagers rely oddly on pop-culture references from the mid-2000s. Mentions of bygone sci-fi fandoms like Buffy and Battlestar Galactica make the novel feel desperate, like a mom trying way too hard to talk like the cool kids.
A predictable and morally suspect love story. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3210-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart.
After praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic.
When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol. Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. Evangeline desperately prays to the Prince of Hearts, a dangerous and fickle Fate famed for his heart that is waiting to be revived by his one true love—and his potentially lethal kisses. The bargain they strike sends her on a dark and magical journey throughout the land. The writing style fluctuates from clever and original to overly verbose and often confusing in its jumble of senses. While the pervasive magic and concept of the Fates as a religious system add interest, other fantasy elements are haphazardly incorporated without enough time devoted to building a cohesive world. However, the themes of love, the power of story, family influence, and holding onto belief are well rounded and add depth. The plot contains welcome surprises, and the large cast piques curiosity; readers will wish more time was spent getting to know them. Evangeline has rose-gold hair and, like other main characters, reads as White; there is diversity among the fantasy races in this world.
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart. (map) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26839-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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