Will have readers cheering for #MoreMillie.
The incomparable Millie Porter is back in this follow-up to My Life Uploaded (2018).
Millie’s life is going well, but anxiety, that thief of time and happiness, won’t let her enjoy it. She just knows disaster is coming down the pike. To cope with the catastrophic thinking that chases all rational thought from her brain, Millie follows Mum’s advice to focus on the facts: Millie is moving back home now that she and Gary the Neat Freak (Mum’s boyfriend) have come to a compromise over biscuit crumbs; she and best friend Lauren have smoothed things over; Danny is her boyfriend after a great deal of confusion; and her vlog, Hashtag Help, has gone viral thanks to Dave the cat’s accidental on-camera shenanigans. Also a fact: Success is hard, what with the whole “being quite great all the time” thing and her new agent, who’s pushing for “maximum Dave.” And then there are the not-so-pleasant surprises that come her way. Millie’s confiding first-person direct address is punctuated with blog and vlog transcripts. Her anxiety-driven thought tangents will be familiar to readers who also suffer from anxiety, an oft-misunderstood and minimized mental health issue that is dealt here with honesty, gentle sarcasm, and a warm heart. The book assumes a white default; Danny has mixed Chinese and French Canadian heritage.
Will have readers cheering for #MoreMillie. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-13380-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A smart, timely outing.
Two teens connect through a mysterious podcast in this sophomore effort by British author Oseman (Solitaire, 2015).
Frances Janvier is a 17-year-old British-Ethiopian head girl who is so driven to get into Cambridge that she mostly forgoes friendships for schoolwork. Her only self-indulgence is listening to and creating fan art for the podcast Universe City, “a…show about a suit-wearing student detective looking for a way to escape a sci-fi, monster-infested university.” Aled Last is a quiet white boy who identifies as “partly asexual.” When Frances discovers that Aled is the secret creator of Universe City, the two embark on a passionate, platonic relationship based on their joint love of pop culture. Their bond is complicated by Aled’s controlling mother and by Frances’ previous crush on Aled’s twin sister, Carys, who ran away last year and disappeared. When Aled’s identity is accidently leaked to the Universe City fandom, he severs his relationship with Frances, leaving her questioning her Cambridge goals and determined to win back his affection, no matter what the cost. Frances’ narration is keenly intelligent; she takes mordant pleasure in using an Indian friend’s ID to get into a club despite the fact they look nothing alike: “Gotta love white people.” Though the social-media–suffused plot occasionally lags, the main characters’ realistic relationship accurately depicts current issues of gender, race, and class.
A smart, timely outing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233571-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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