A sincere story about the courage required to be true to oneself that overlooks central historical elements.
Young women in Nazi Germany carve out a space for their untraditional love.
Charlotte Kraus is once again following her crush, Angelika Haas. This time Geli takes them to an underground dance hall filled with American jazz music. This music is one more thing deemed inappropriate for a proper girl in 1930s Berlin—just like girls’ having loose, unbraided hair or wanting to kiss other girls or not being devoted Hitlerjugend members. Spanning the years leading up to and through World War II, the story follows Charlie and her small group of friends as they are coming into young adulthood. Minna is Jewish and scared for her family. Renate, who is deaf in one ear, prefers wearing boys clothing and drops out of school; hiding her disability is critical. Geli is the daughter of an SS officer. And while Charlie wants to continue her schooling, she’s not on the university entrance track and is expected to work. Tyndall has composed a moving, ardent narrative of the Swingjugend, or swing youth, that readers will at times find prescient as they consider recent events. Oddly, however, given that the characters live in a society dominated by race theory, the music’s origins in Black American culture go unmentioned, and the anti-Blackness at the heart of Nazi hostility toward jazz and swing is erased, subsumed under generic statements that “anything not German is degenerate.”
A sincere story about the courage required to be true to oneself that overlooks central historical elements. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308744-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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