Confusing and not nearly as funny as it wants to be.
An intergenerational Australian comedy.
Alana Oakley starts Year Eight with a crush on the new boy, Flynn—and so do her friends, setting up comedic tension. In a parallel storyline, readers meet Alana’s freelance-journalist mother, Emma, a Filipina immigrant and grieving widow who self-medicates with painkillers with the help of her irresponsible friends. After Emma is caught in a nonsensical, televised high-speed police chase—much to Alana’s embarrassment—she is sentenced to community service at the Police Boys’ Club, rehabilitating at-risk youth called “Second-Chancers.” A chapter titled “Lost in Translation” pretty much sums up the rest of this confusing read as the author weaves in and out of POV between Alana and her mother, following Alana’s misadventures and her mother’s erratic behavior, fueled by an obvious addiction to painkillers. Meanwhile, Alana’s crush on Flynn loses its allure as she becomes convinced he’s a phony and begins to stalk him (absurdly wearing a sombrero as a disguise at one point). Unfortunately, instances of body-shaming and the use of cultural stereotypes for comic relief further mar this title. Inkwell’s cast is a diverse one; in addition to biracial Alana (her father was white) and her mother, one of Alana’s friends is Bruneian, and her “Auntie” Ling Ling is Singaporean Chinese.
Confusing and not nearly as funny as it wants to be. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5383-8483-1
Page Count: 312
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Awful on a number of levels—but tidily over at last.
The rebellion against an evil archmage and his bowler-topped minions wends its way to a climax.
Dispatching five baddies on the first two pages alone, wand-waving villain-exterminator Vega Jane gathers a motley army of fellow magicals, ghosts, and muggles—sorry, “Wugmorts”—for a final assault on Necro and his natty Maladons. As Necro repeatedly proves to be both smarter and more powerful than Vega Jane, things generally go badly for the rebels, who end up losing their hidden refuge, many of their best fighters, and even the final battle. Baldacci is plainly up on his ancient Greek theatrical conventions, however; just as all hope is lost, a divinity literally descends from the ceiling to referee a winner-take-all duel, and thanks to an earlier ritual that (she and readers learn) gives her a do-over if she’s killed (a second deus ex machina!), Vega Jane comes away with a win…not to mention an engagement ring to go with the magic one that makes her invisible and a new dog, just like the one that died heroically. Measuring up to the plot’s low bar, the narrative too reads like low-grade fanfic, being laden with references to past events, characters who only supposedly died, and such lines as “a spurt of blood shot out from my forehead,” “they started falling at a rapid number,” and “[h]is statement struck me on a number of levels.”
Awful on a number of levels—but tidily over at last. (glossary) (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-26393-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre.
Survival camp? How can you not have bad feelings about that?
Sixteen-year-old nerd (or geek, but not dork) Henry Lambert has no desire to go to Strongwoods Survival Camp. His father thinks it might help Henry man up and free him of some of his odd phobias. Randy, Henry’s best friend since kindergarten, is excited at the prospect of going thanks to the camp’s promotional YouTube video, so Henry relents. When they arrive at the shabby camp in the middle of nowhere and meet the possibly insane counselor (and only staff member), Max, Henry’s bad feelings multiply. Max tries to train his five campers with a combination of carrot and stick, but the boys are not athletes, let alone survivalists. When a trio of gangsters drops in on the camp Games to try to collect the debt owed by the owner, the boys suddenly have to put their skills to the test. Too bad they don’t have any—at all. Strand’s summer-camp farce is peopled with sarcastic losers who’re chatty and wry. It’s often funny, and the gags turn in unexpected directions and would do Saturday Night Live skits proud. However, the story’s flow is hampered by an unnecessary and completely unfunny frame that takes place during the premier of the movie the boys make of their experience. The repeated intrusions bring the narrative to a screeching halt.
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8455-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
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