A darkly humorous coming-of-age novel set in Melbourne.
A teenage malcontent attempts to survive the eponymous year in Dann’s debut YA novel.
After his parents split up, Ralph “Spook” Halliday and his mother, Rose, leave the small Australian mill town of Karnook for the big city of Melbourne. Spook isn’t happy about any of it; he’s furious about the fact that his dad is gone, his mother has uprooted him, and he has to leave his pet tadpoles behind (so furious, in fact, that he dumps them out on the ground and squishes them with his foot). He hates their new apartment above the dress shop owned by the opinionated Mrs. Green, which isn’t at all like the American apartments he’s seen on television. “There are many stains at Mrs. Green's not properly accounted for,” Ralph notes with horror. “The floorboards in his bedroom. The lino in the kitchen and passageways and bathroom. The carpet in the TV room. All bear stains of dubious origin.” Rose signs Ralph up for the local technical school, where he’s introduced to his new peers: the know-it-all Thickness (named for his Coke-bottle glasses), the profanity-flinging Wocker, and Tina, a magnetic figure who inspires strong competition among the boys. “Saving” Tina from the local Rockets gang (they want to “give” Tina to a member as a birthday present) becomes Ralph’s greatest fixation, but the method of the boys’ rescue may end up doing more harm than good. Dann’s prose skillfully captures Ralph’s sullen perspective, particularly in dialogue, as when Rose brags to Ralph about how she got the apartment at a discount due to the fact that a man died in it during the recent heat wave: “ ‘Where did he die?’ ‘I don't know all the details, Ralph.’ ‘Was it in my room?’ ‘Ralph, you said you wouldn't do this.’ ‘You said there wasn't a smell! You said it was must!’ ” The narrative is episodic and some chapters lag, but readers will be charmed by Dann’s now exotic-seeming world of early 1960s Australia and find themselves thoroughly immersed throughout.
A darkly humorous coming-of-age novel set in Melbourne.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0645542905
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Putt Putt Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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