An absorbing, plot-driven, skin-crawling thriller.
A nonbinary teen is haunted by their father’s serial killer past.
The impact on Sid Atkinson of having a father in prison for being a serial killer has been crushing. Sid has changed their last name, lives with Gram in a trailer, and is visited by the ghosts of the five teenaged girls Dad murdered so gruesomely. Ten years after the first victim was killed, June Hargrove’s body is found in the same lake as those of her predecessors. Sid knows their father didn’t do it—he’s serving time in prison—but the coincidence is triggering. As the body count ratchets up, and the patterns start to mirror their father’s crimes, it becomes clear to Sid that a copycat is at work. Sid is willing to go to great lengths to discover who’s murdering the teenage girls of Cardinal Creek, even going to see their father in prison for the first time in two years. Sid finds space, amid this recurring horror, to entertain a budding romance with mysterious new girl Mavis Hastings. But as Sid gets closer to the truth, their fear becomes conflated with the whispers of the ghosts, and people close to them end up in just as much danger as Sid is. This story moves at a fast pace, one so fast that Sid’s inner turmoil—and quite possibly, the attention to their mental health—gets short shrift. Most characters are cued white.
An absorbing, plot-driven, skin-crawling thriller. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9780063305885
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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