Realistically captures the rough road to rock bottom.
With help from recreational drugs, a dissolute young woman parties her way through the 1980s.
When she first does lines with her 36-year-old married boss, 16-year-old Robin Daniels is working as a lifeguard in Myrtle Beach. Thus begins an eight-year cocktail of sex, vodka, quaaludes and cocaine. Strikingly beautiful, with a figure to die for, Robin trades on her looks for cash and lovers, both male and female, to fill the void created by her self-absorbed father and deceased mother. She’s desperate for quality time with daddy in Philly, but he’s focused on new wife Cheryl. When Robin runs away from home, her father makes no attempt to find her. After being picked up by the police for underage drinking, she meets Jeff, a divorced friend of a friend. They live together and eventually wed, but she’s turned on by Jeff’s brother Ray. After her marriage to Jeff dissolves, she enjoys multiple trysts, earning money waitressing and selling herself while under the influence. Through the years, she snorts coke and the cash racks up; she uses and is used by numerous moneyed individuals in exotic locales—New York, London, Panama City, etc. The goal is to marry rich and retire. There’s no shortage of action, as Robin copulates and self-medicates through the best years of her life, rarely thinking about where and how it will end. As a character, she’s less than sympathetic, pegging many a man as greedy and lecherous while categorizing herself as “sexually progressive.” But life isn’t all studs and roses for this hot babe. She’s keenly aware of her appearance and the jealousy simmering in other women; but that doesn’t stop her from putting the moves on another woman’s man. Although she turns a blind eye to self-responsibility, she’s judgmental about others, e.g., about a Vietnam veteran: “I thought of Jeff’s friend who’d come back from Vietnam paralyzed, he drank a case of beer a day and sharpened his hunting knives—the war his excuse for being an asshole.” Sex, drugs and booze aren’t the only excesses here: The book runs to 71 chapters, most of which center on yet another assignation to show just how low Robin can go. The writing works best when it’s straightforward; attempts at highbrow literary phrasings fall flat, often leaving the reader to intuit the meaning of an awkward, headache-inducing sentence. Still, the colorful characters in Robin’s orbit help bolster the coked-up story, and the final part proves to be the best.
Realistically captures the rough road to rock bottom.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 361
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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