A well-crafted coming-of-age novel that skillfully chronicles the trials of a lonely orphan who joins a street gang.
Forster tells the story of a girl’s tumultuous life in London in this YA debut.
When a boy at the children’s home offers to take Kathy to meet his friends, she’s just happy to have something to do. Following the deaths of her parents, she was shipped from her village in northern England to London, where the people are icy, and she’s had a difficult time fitting in. She quickly realizes that her new friends constitute a street gang, but she is too lonely to reject their invitation to join them. Their leader, the magnetic, ambitious Gary, holds a particular allure for Kathy: she thinks that he’s like a character out of a novel. Kathy sees herself as a modern-day Becky Sharp, from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, ingratiating herself with her new social circle: “Her old self was slipping away, but another one, altogether leaner, sharper and more efficient was slowly developing.” Gary sees himself as an underworld CEO, overseeing his many business interests while remaining one step ahead of the law. But his management style becomes brutal, and an atmosphere of fear soon replaces Kathy’s excitement. She thinks increasingly of her past: of the Romany woman who told her of old legends and the Northumberland landscape. She decides she must seek out her grandfather, from whom she was separated after the deaths of her parents. Perhaps she can rebuild something of her old life—if only she’s able to extricate herself from the new one. Forster’s narrative voice is pitched to Kathy’s anxiousness, resulting in a world that is equal parts menacing and romantic. The narrative intersperses the crowded, anonymous language of London with Kathy’s vivid recollections of the Northumberland moors of her previous life: “The heather too burned, but in a different way. It filled the landscape, as far as she could see, with a blazing purple, set off here and there by green bracken.” The tale’s conclusion is predictably Dickensian, and a bit of unexpected religiosity begins to slip in toward the end, but the book keeps the reader invested, curious to see just where Kathy lands.
A well-crafted coming-of-age novel that skillfully chronicles the trials of a lonely orphan who joins a street gang.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5043-3850-9
Page Count: 374
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A swift fable about navigating the perils of middle school.
A bossy middle school fashionista feels threatened by the new girl in Saii’s YA novel.
Vanessa Pocker and her friends Chelsea, Adrienne and Katie are the richest of the rich in their Santa Monica, Calif., middle school, and they comprise the Sassy Divas. Vanessa leads the pack and dictates whom the divas are allowed to talk to, what they’re allowed to wear and how they conduct themselves in public. Vanessa is so domineering that it’s a miracle she has any friends at all. Had Saii endowed her with an ounce of kindness, the loyalty of her minions might be more understandable. Vanessa’s militant nature finally alienates Katie, the diva who is too much of a bookworm, according to Vanessa. Katie befriends Flo, who’s on the Sassy Diva “do not speak to” list (Flo had once refused to hold Vanessa’s purse). Excommunicated from the Sassy Divas, Katie befriends the new girl at the school, Quinn. This infuriates Vanessa, and she declares war. A power play ensues among the adversarial lip-glossed sets, with Vanessa, Chelsea and Adrienne on one side and Katie, Quinn and Flo on the other. Vanessa turns to guy friend Ryan, who offers the only voice of reason when he admonishes her for obsessing over trivialities, such as revenge and makeovers, when there are starving children in the world. He seems to be nothing more than Vanessa’s sounding board, and it’s unclear what he gets out of the relationship. At least Vanessa buys clothes and makeup for her divas, on occasion. Mired in trendy youngster lingo, Saii’s tale accurately depicts girls’ power plays and the alienation that can result from simply owning jeans without a designer label. Fashion, gossip, popularity and shopping define these characters, and any threat of competition is cause for war. Vanessa’s parents rarely make appearances, except for a poignant scene when Vanessa’s mother engages her daughter in a heart-to-heart about her selfish behavior. It’s a relief to finally hear the mother speak and lead the story to an ending marked with humor and depth. Saii’s literary chops are inconsistently displayed and improve toward the conclusion. Although the average middle school girl may not wear Jimmy Choos or form private elitist groups, young readers might find themselves curious about these affluent trendsetters. At least Vanessa learns her lesson, which raises the novel a notch above teenybopper fluff.
A swift fable about navigating the perils of middle school.Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 9781937675080
Page Count: 155
Publisher: Lekha Publishers
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing, if not always emotionally engaging, story of a serious teen problem.
Somers’ debut young-adult novel follows a teenage boy from sickness to tenuous health as he battles an eating disorder and the problems that helped create it.
Nathan is a typical teen with typical problems, including an unhappy family life and romantic disappointment, but he’s got an unhealthy “solution” for dealing with them: starving and purging himself. His descent into bulimia and anorexia occurs quite quickly; it starts with Nathan taking short bike rides to get away from his domineering father and alcoholic mother, and soon he’s inducing vomiting; not long afterward, he’s admitted to an eating-disorder program, at which point the book seems to find its center. Nathan is the only boy in his unit, a fact that his status-obsessed parents find it hard to understand; in fact, as the book makes clear, boys make up 10 percent of those who suffer from eating disorders. Somers’ novel never falls into “after-school special” territory, but it has a clear message. Nathan is depicted as a smart, cynical teenager, but his trials are sometimes more informative than heart-wrenching. The short chapters, complete with bad teenage poetry, keep the story moving, and Nathan’s dad, mom and nurse all get at least one chance to tell their side of the story. But although these multiple points of view are interesting, they may distract readers from Nathan’s personal trials. Also, the novel sometimes gets bogged down in eating-disorder program protocol; for example, a plan to interrupt Nathan’s family therapy takes two pages of emails, rather than a line or two of dialogue.
An intriguing, if not always emotionally engaging, story of a serious teen problem.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-0988367203
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Rundy Hill Press LLC
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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