Despite flaws, Jules’ hard-won insights into what families can give us and what we must find and create on our own make for...
A teen’s discovery that she spent 19 months in foster care as an infant sends her searching for answers.
Jules’ single mom, an addict in long-term recovery who has kept Jules’ origins secret, prefers painting in her studio to spending time with her daughter (mother and daughter are assumed white). Confronted with evidence of Jules’ placement in foster care, her mom says only that she relinquished her during a one-time relapse. Jules’ friends Gab, cherished daughter of Jewish psychologists, and Leila, adopted by affluent parents from a Ukrainian orphanage, encourage her to seek her foster family. Through social media she connects with former foster brother Luke and learns his Jewish parents longed to adopt her and were heartbroken when she was returned to her mother. With Luke’s mother battling cancer, Jules spends a reunion weekend with his loving, financially comfortable family, contrasting their lives with the neglect she’s experienced. She also crushes over Luke (amid titillating fears it’s incestuous). Like Eli—Jules’ gay, goth barista friend—Luke’s an underdeveloped character. The demographically atypical depiction of foster care raises questions: why wasn’t Jules placed with relatives? Why did Luke’s family foster when their goal was to adopt? However, the stronger final chapters honor the myriad complexities of family life.
Despite flaws, Jules’ hard-won insights into what families can give us and what we must find and create on our own make for a moving read. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9469-2
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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