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THE MANY SHADES OF INDIGO

Name: THE MANY SHADES OF INDIGO
Author: N.B. Edge
ISBN: 978-1434909336

by N.B. Edge ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2011

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In his debut novel, Edge tackles abuse, homosexuality and heartbreak in hopes of championing the cause of abused kids.

The story, written in alternating first-person narratives, has an array of characters who are products of abuse and dysfunction. The book opens with Thomasina, a teen mother trying to escape the downward spiral begun by her drug-addicted mother. Thomasina’s voice is engaging, but her narrative weighs down the front of the book with back story as most of the action takes place years later and focuses Indigo, an abused, sexually confused boy who goes to high school with Thomasina’s son, Ahmir. The first half of the book follows Indigo as he attempts to make friends and his friend, Lexy, and several adults try to figure out what he’s hiding and who is beating him. Each character has positive and negative traits that help him or her feel balanced and real. The plot is compelling, but the alternating perspectives make it difficult to feel an attachment to the characters and, at times, make the teens seem unrealistically self-reflective. Additionally, wordy sentences and an abundance of description slow the story. While the first half reads like an edgy young-adult novel, the second half takes a darker turn, focusing primarily on one abusive relationship and showcasing the generational cycle of abuse. During this part of the book, several teens (all at least 18-years-old) are coerced into illicit relationships with adults. Much of the story is centered on teens, but the violence, sex and profanity that are prominent throughout make it unsuitable for most teen readers. The book is packed with tragic, raw events that have the potential to tap into readers’ own feelings of pain and alienation. But while the book is noble in its attempt to give voice to abuse victims, readers may wonder whether it has achieved the promise of its epilogue—“The Many Shades of Indigo represents all that is wonderful in the world and all that’s beautiful in human beings.” An intriguing, if at times too-vivid, depiction of abuse.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2011

ISBN: 978-1434909336

Page Count: 212

Publisher: Dorrance

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2012

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

by Stephen Chbosky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 1999

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Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999

ISBN: 0-671-02734-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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MONSTER

by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...

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In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.

Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)