A stylish and heartwarming coming-of-age story.
A high school student bounces back following her parents’ separation in Lee’s YA novel.
Nessa Harding’s senior year is not going well. The Montreal teen’s father, an aspiring poet, has left her mother, which has led Nessa’s more successful mother, a painter, to suffer a nervous breakdown. To make matters worse, Nessa has to give up her beloved dog when she and her mom are forced to relocate to a new apartment in a pet-free building. At school, she pines unrequitedly for Bryce Sinclair, a former basketball star who quit the team after the recent death of his father. As Nessa attempts to handle her increasingly unwell mother and figure out what she wants to do after graduation, she strikes up a friendship with her new neighbors across the hall, Dagmar and Priscilla, two older costume designers with a collection of “showbiz mannequins.” She also gets to know the school’s guidance counselor, Ms. Mazur, who operates her own art gallery in her spare time. Some good luck makes Bryce aware of Nessa’s existence, but impressing the king of the school will take a level of confidence Nessa doesn’t have. Luckily, her new and old friends are there to help build her back up, figure out her future, and maybe convince Bryce to take her to the prom. Lee’s prose has a magnetic energy, capturing Nessa’s world in vibrant detail. Here she arrives home to discover her mother in the midst of an episode: “I find her curled up on her bed in the fetal position. Her hair is a wispy mess, like a bird’s nest, and she’s covered in splotches of various shapes and sizes. Her chest rises and falls rhythmically. She looks like a living, breathing Rorschach Test. This could be a good thing. Or not.” Called Zebra-girl for the zebra-print headband that helps her forge her new identity, Nessa is an endearing protagonist. Much of the book’s charm comes from the characters who surround her, reminding readers how essential community is in adolescence.
A stylish and heartwarming coming-of-age story.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2024
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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