A chilling yet poignant story about the suffering in front of us that we can’t bear to see.
Eighteen-year-old Noah understands pain too well: He can see it as others cannot—as the Marr, an all-encompassing darkness that is kidnapping young women and slowly causing Evan, his best friend, to disappear in front of everyone.
The mysteries in this novel, set in early 1980s Portland, Oregon, roll in like a rising tide. The horrors of Noah’s past, filled with physical abuse and grisly trauma, are slowly revealed. Ziggy, an uber-confident David Bowie doppelgänger, suddenly appears in Noah’s life, but with his uncannily timed arrivals and departures, readers will question the nature of his existence. Evan’s physical health progressively deteriorates, but is it the Marr or something even more sinister attacking him? Ziggy encourages Noah to reunite his band, the Gallivanters. He must get them into the grand reopening gig at the PfefferBrau Haus, where the only vanished girl to have been found was discovered, dead and brewed into a vat of porter. Playing this show, all the Gallivanters together and Ziggy singing lead, is the key to vanquishing the Marr, saving the girls and rescuing Evan. Beaufrand’s masterful pace compels readers toward the satisfying though heartbreaking conclusion, prodding them to question throughout whether Noah’s story takes place in reality or in a dissociative hellscape.
A chilling yet poignant story about the suffering in front of us that we can’t bear to see. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1495-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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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