A deeply affecting, valuable story and educational tool.
A debut YA novella about cyberbullying by journalist and short story writer King.
Like many teenagers, Jenna Wilson yearns to be accepted by the popular crowd at her school, Willoughby High in Australia. She naively believes that Renee, a friend from her swim team, can help her get to know Tina Scaruffi, Renee’s uber-popular cousin. When Tina and her comrade, Krissy, inexplicably begin paying attention to Jenna, she’s baffled but flattered; she also immediately starts ignoring her own lifelong friend, Alyssa. All the kids at school seem to suddenly notice Jenna, who revels in no longer feeling invisible. An invitation to a party seems like the ultimate sign of acceptance; at that event, she tries to ease her nervousness by accepting the disgusting drinks that Krissy keep pushing on her. The predictably disastrous results are only made worse when Tina and Krissy take revealing photographs of an intoxicated, half-dressed Jenna and post them all over social media. When Jenna finally has the nerve to return to school, she discovers that everyone thinks of her as “Slag Bitch,” and she longs to return to her previous invisibility. As Tina and Krissy’s bullying continues, Jenna thinks about ending the torture the only way she knows how—by drowning herself. Inspired by the real-life story of the late Canadian teenager Amanda Todd, this story puts a human face on cyberbullying, something many teens may have already learned about in school. The novella also includes supplemental lists of resources, study questions, and curriculum tie-ins for Australians. Without being preachy, the story reinforces the importance of seeking assistance, as Jenna is rescued, in more ways than one, by a favorite teacher. King crafts characters to whom readers can relate by showing not just Jenna’s unimaginable pain, but also Alyssa’s pangs of rejection as well as Jenna’s parents’ indescribable anguish. Although the Australian slang and references may prove difficult for young American readers, the Down Under setting adds an element of cool.
A deeply affecting, valuable story and educational tool.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9945690-1-1
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aulexic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A safe, if mostly undemanding, climb to the lower slopes of high fantasy.
Two 16-year-olds cross between two worlds and search for dragon eggs in this debut novel.
When Sarah was 8 she befriended Mrs. Carter, an elderly lady who told her stories of a far-off land. Now 16 and bequeathed the woman’s watch, Sarah finds herself in Ingraham—that same magical place with its medieval castle and swooping dragoons (young dragons who remain in the human realm). Sarah and her best friend, Tom, go there when they sleep. Guided by the watch, they enjoy double lives: schoolchildren in one world, a serving girl and a prince in the other; asleep in one, in the other always waking to a new day. The people of Ingraham have a special relationship with their dragoons, and more than anything else, Sarah yearns to become a dragoon guard. Her conviction impresses Tom (“He hears a passion in her voice and sees her face and eyes light up as he has never seen before. Prince Thomas has throughout the years seen her want things, like her Mustang or a new CD that she just had to have, but this excitement is different now”). To have a chance, she must make it through the Quest Games, followed by training and then a perilous rite of passage—and she must escape the unwanted advances of a brazen sexual bully. Jewell writes as if caught between a desire to indulge her imagination and the need to assuage fantasy expectations. The class barrier between Sarah and Tom is reversed in Ingraham but more or less passed over; likewise, the changing of their names to Sara and Thomas, which, in a nice, subtle touch, begins to bleed through and blur between worlds. This is where the story shows potential, yet for the most part, the author sticks with the fantasy default settings (albeit garnished with dragoons and flying boars). Such familiarity may appeal to some readers, but although Jewell writes crisply in the present tense, she brings neither portent nor urgency to the Quest Games or the mission itself—or even to the threat of sexual assault. Sarah in particular is just too passive a character, and she and Tom receive too much support against not enough peril. Theirs is the journey of friends who are going through the motions, not living and breathing an epic adventure.
A safe, if mostly undemanding, climb to the lower slopes of high fantasy.Pub Date: July 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5218-9364-7
Page Count: 261
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A trio of innocent romances more magical and mysterious than the titles and covers might suggest.
In these three novellas, unhappy teens find themselves displaced in time and saved by love.
In Lantern, 16-year-old Tori finds a lamppost on her grandmother’s property and a lantern that only lights up in her presence. The beam turns out to be a tiny person: a boy named Jared, who long ago was trapped inside the object while working for his master, Machin, a renowned maker of lanterns. As Halloween approaches, Tori must find a way to free Jared—or risk losing him forever. In Beacon, Serah Kettel, a disowned teenager in the medieval village of Havenbrim, takes up an apprenticeship with Machin. Tasked with opening a sealed globe, Serah instead becomes caught inside—until many Halloweens later when a boy releases her to a world she no longer understands. Finally, in Torch, an orphan named Graham succeeds Serah as Machin’s apprentice. As he did for Serah, Machin fashions a special lantern for Graham. This one is different, however, and in Pennsylvania one distant Halloween, Evelyn, an orphaned teen in her final year of school, strays too close to a lamppost and is whisked back in time to Havenbrim. Can Graham free her from her glass prison—and if he does, will she stay with him? Desalls (Time for the Lost, 2016, etc.) might skirt the edges of generic girl-boy longing, but her young characters have personality enough to stand apart, and Machin’s lamp-making adds sparkle to the trilogy. In fact, it is the artifice of Machin’s character that gives the collection its edge: an ominous uncertainty to weigh against those first gentle flutterings of teenage hearts. Each of the protagonists’ stories effectively stands alone, yet the three novellas also benefit from being read in tandem. Desalls casts a different slant on each telling of her Halloween scenario, and among these—simply written yet garnering a combined weight of experience—a shared tale emerges of how lives may develop and love may burgeon. From Havenbrim to the here and now, many YA readers will likely stare at the moon and dream.
A trio of innocent romances more magical and mysterious than the titles and covers might suggest.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9993829-3-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Czidor Lore, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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