A keen tale with a teen protagonist who will certainly earn readers’ sympathies and support.
A young, withdrawn girl whom everyone seemingly ignores may be fading away—quite literally—in this YA drama.
Thirteen-year-old Zylia Moss is an invisible girl. That’s how she feels in a large family consisting of her parents, grandmother, and five siblings. At both home and school, people seem oblivious to her presence: It’s as if Zylia appears out of nowhere or vanishes without anyone noticing. Even if she manages to catch folks’ attention, it’s the type she doesn’t want, as when they witness an embarrassing stumble. But Zylia soon fears she’s genuinely disappearing, stemming from the story of Angelica, the long-lost, presumed dead great-aunt she’s never known. Zylia’s dementia-ridden grandmother is convinced that the teenager is just like Angelica, with an apparent ability to fade into another world. Zylia searches for answers in the family’s attic, which contains a few particulars on Angelica, including a diary. But what Zylia ultimately finds is another girl her age who, not unlike Zylia herself, suffers in silence. Zylia wants to help this girl, but once she experiences what she describes as an “out-of-body movement,” she comes dangerously close to Angelica’s supposed fate—vanishing for good. Despite hints of the supernatural, Mount (The Nanny Song, 2018) wisely keeps the story vague. For example, it’s unclear for the majority of the novel whether or not Zylia’s predicament is literal or metaphorical. In either case, the tale effectively addresses adolescent troubles, namely meek, unpopular Zylia’s relentless loneliness. Though supporting characters aren’t typically likable, especially some obnoxious eighth-grade students, the author offers relief with Zylia’s sweet little sister, Ivy; a new friend, Terra Grant; and a genial crush, Josh Pierceton. There’s likewise humor: Most people, other than her family, mispronounce Zylia’s name in varying ways. The prose throughout is precise and illustrative: “There were frozen chunks of ice caught up in places along the water’s edge, but I could hear the liquid flowing below, unimpeded by the temperature.”
A keen tale with a teen protagonist who will certainly earn readers’ sympathies and support.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9996556-5-8
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Between the Lines Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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