Memorable, if sometimes ham-fisted.
Two teens fall for one another amid an extreme sport and an extremist plot in Withers and Hayat’s YA novel.
Sixteen-year-old Bronte Miller has returned to her hometown of Richland, Washington, after a year in Egypt. She misses her life in Alexandria, including her romance with Sarfraz, a boy from the Parkour Academy whom she kept secret from her parents. Richland is boring in comparison, at least until Yemeni refugee Karam Saif comes to town. Karam is an outsider in every way, but he and Bronte share two things in common: Bronte’s father is a journalist currently covering the war in Yemen, and they have a mutual love of the sport of parkour. Parkour—an activity that involves running, jumping, and climbing over obstacles—is popular at Bronte’s high school. There’s even a parkour club, run by the new computer teacher from France, Julian Legendre. Bronte soon develops feelings for Karam. It isn’t long, though, before suspicions between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Richland boil into an extremist recruitment controversy involving both teens—along with Bronte’s father and the parkour club itself! Withers and Hayat write in apt, punchy prose: “One by one, starting on the floor, we throw ourselves against the poles, sometimes bashing our poor bodies against them, mostly sliding right off like the metal is greased. But gradually, a few of us start getting it—sticking one out of five times, one out of four times.” The premise of the novel is somewhat hard to believe: Nearly every character, no matter where they are from, happens to love parkour? Really? Once the reader gets past that, the book reveals itself to be about American fears and misunderstandings of Islam and the Arab world…even if those fears and misunderstandings crop up in ways that are very on-the-nose. Bronte is perhaps a bit too angst-y, Karam a bit too idealized, and Legendre a bit too unbelievable, but fans of big, unsubtle YA sports novels will likely enjoy this intriguing blend of parkour, cross-cultural understanding, and teen romance.
Memorable, if sometimes ham-fisted.Pub Date: April 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9959103-2-4
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
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