A winning hero confronts serious issues in this increasingly dark YA/SF saga.
Transgender teen Oliver navigates relationships and other hazards with the assistance of a shape-shifting alien in Blume’s YA SF novel.
The sequel to the author’s Caring for Your Clown: Aliens Are Real (2021) returns to the travails of 14-year-old Oliver Jariwala. Assigned female at birth (and named “Olivia”), Oliver is male. He has suffered a traumatic, abusive childhood at the hands of his conservative father, Matthew, from whom Oliver’s mother, Marie, has obtained a divorce. Subsequently, Marie, a scientist, vanished in a laboratory accident—she apparently disintegrated—while working on a “molecular transporter” device. Oliver was adopted by a Marie’s second husband, the loving, equally science-minded Jon Jariwala, whose last name Oliver is excited to take for his own (“ ‘Mom wanted me to wait until I was eighteen,’ he said, ‘But now that I'm legally his kid, I don’t have to…I wanna make sure he knows how much it means to me’ ”). Earlier, the vengeful, psychotic Matthew had pushed for legal custody. Oliver was only saved from Matthew’s brutal control by an intercession from a remarkable friend: a humanoid female alien creature named Dindet, who arrived on Earth via (apparently) the same phenomenon that dematerialized Marie. Though friendly and technologically advanced, Dindet is backwards and troublesome in many ways; bizarrely, she takes the form of a multicolored circus clown (it appears clowns are a recognized extra-terrestrial race). Disguised as a foreign exchange student living with Oliver (while trying to help Jon unravel the mystery of Marie’s disappearance on the side), Dindet experiences frequent culture shock and becomes swept up in capers with Oliver in both this and other dimensions. Oliver, losing patience with Dindet’s increasing absences and erratic nature, experiences deeper relationships with boy-next-door Douglass and a brash upperclassman, Markus, a confident and cool senior connected to the school paper. But even Markus’ own stepbrother, Cody Mulligan, warns Oliver that Markus is bad news. Meanwhile, the institute behind Marie’s fateful science experiment presses for firm answers and results.
Like the ever-morphing Dindet, a more or less an amorphous blob whose forms range from a sort of Harpo Marx–like comical character to a slavering Lovecraftian monstrosity, the plot is a real mish-mash of elements, tilting toward the shocking, confessional work of confabulated author “J.T. Leroy” in its key themes of incest, domestic violence, and gender. This is YA fiction at a rarefied level—the author has a knack for conveying how real adolescents might process the complicated feelings experienced by the characters (“The senior turned to face him, some sorry and sad frown pulling at his lips. ‘And if—if you’re not into it, that’s fine. I don't know how, uh, boy girl—girl boys work, lol’ ”). The Dindet material, which is largely relegated to a subplot here, ultimately dovetails with Oliver’s drama in very dire fashion. The two narrative strands share a painful commonality (in addition to the notion of alien-ation) in their vivid depictions of personal violation and innocents being cruelly victimized.
A winning hero confronts serious issues in this increasingly dark YA/SF saga.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2022
ISBN: 9781737946342
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Shaky Alien Publications
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told.
The 17-year-old son of a troubled rock star is determined to find his own way in life and love.
On the verge of adulthood, Blade Morrison wants to leave his father’s bad-boy reputation for drug-and-alcohol–induced antics and his sister’s edgy lifestyle behind. The death of his mother 10 years ago left them all without an anchor. Named for the black superhero, Blade shares his family’s connection to music but resents the paparazzi that prevent him from having an open relationship with the girl that he loves. However, there is one secret even Blade is unaware of, and when his sister reveals the truth of his heritage during a bitter fight, Blade is stunned. When he finally gains some measure of equilibrium, he decides to investigate, embarking on a search that will lead him to a small, remote village in Ghana. Along the way, he meets people with a sense of purpose, especially Joy, a young Ghanaian who helps him despite her suspicions of Americans. This rich novel in verse is full of the music that forms its core. In addition to Alexander and co-author Hess’ skilled use of language, references to classic rock songs abound. Secondary characters add texture to the story: does his girlfriend have real feelings for Blade? Is there more to his father than his inability to stay clean and sober? At the center is Blade, fully realized and achingly real in his pain and confusion.
A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told. (Verse fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-310-76183-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Blink
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
PERSPECTIVES
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