A coming-of-age adventure that’s well drawn and thoughtful.
A high school girl in the early 1970s hitchhikes across Canada to blackmail a rich boy in this YA novel.
In Eastern Canada, the town of Burgess is on the right side of the tracks while on the wrong side is Sloan Hill—or, as the more fortunate call it, Slum Hill. As the 1970 school year begins, 17-year-old Hannah Romero newly mingles with the rich kids at Burgess’ Carver High. When she realizes that Christopher Holding lives in her fantasy house, a mansion where her father is groundskeeper, she pushes her attractive best friend, Stacy, also 17, into a romance with him so she can wangle a party invitation and see inside. After taking photographs there, Hannah realizes she has evidence that Chris is dealing drugs and—oppressed by poverty and her mother’s leukemia—decides to blackmail him. But Chris has moved to Vancouver, so Hannah pressures Stacy to join her in hitchhiking west. Along the way, Hannah falls for an American draft dodger and Stacy suffers a bear attack while camping. By December 1971, Hannah’s transformative experiences have allowed her to learn from her mistakes. In her engaging second novel, Thorne at first dwells on the bitterness of poverty and the two friends’ dismal prospects. The trip west discloses many new horizons while giving Hannah a chance to contemplate other kinds of struggles, such as the young men trying to escape the horrors of Vietnam. She embarks on a vivid, mostly believable journey, from being self-centered, manipulative, and a sometime thief (she takes a pearl necklace from Chris’ house) to becoming someone able to give and receive love. But a fortuneteller’s eerily accurate predictions provide overly convenient insights, and the ending seems too unrealistic.
A coming-of-age adventure that’s well drawn and thoughtful. (YA historical fiction, 14+)Pub Date: June 2, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 219
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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