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
A powerful tale of found family and first love.
After a year away, Ellis returns home to confront her past.
Graduating from high school far from everything familiar was not part of Ellis Truman’s original plans, but she nevertheless ended up spending her senior year with her aunt in California. In Indiana, Ellis practically grew up with the Albrey family and their three tightknit sons, Dixon, Tucker, and Easton. Now, Tucker wants her to return home for matriarch Sandry Albrey’s 50th birthday celebration on the Fourth of July—but Ellis is dreading seeing Easton, as they haven’t talked since she left. Chapters alternate between past and present, and much of the story unravels slowly: How did she come to live with the Albreys? What caused Ellis to then end up in San Diego? What happened in her relationship with Easton? Patient readers will find the heartfelt tension pays off. With her father in and out of jail and an absent mother, socio-economic differences separating Ellis from the middle-class Albreys don’t go unnoticed, and Ellis’ down-to-earth journey shows how she unpacks her feelings about her relationship with her parents. The slow-build romance is swoonworthy, and young adult fans of Colleen Hoover seeking emotional devastation and unforgettable characters will find much to enjoy here. Characters read as White.
A powerful tale of found family and first love. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308853-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
