Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike.
Awkward, prickly teens find deep first love in 1980s Omaha.
Eleanor and Park don’t meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. Park, the only half-Korean fan of punk and New Wave at their high school, is by no means popular, but he benefits from his family’s deep roots in their lower-middle-class neighborhood. Meanwhile, Eleanor’s wildly curly red mane and plus-sized frame would make her stand out even if she weren’t a new student, having just returned to her family after a year of couch-surfing following being thrown out by her odious drunkard of a stepfather, Richie. Although both teens want only to fade into the background, both stand out physically and sartorially, arming themselves with band T-shirts (Park) and menswear from thrift stores (Eleanor). Despite Eleanor’s resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for clichés, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park’s alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor’s survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park’s own imperfect but loving family life.
Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-01257-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
IN THE NEWS
A promising, page-turning romantasy.
An 18-year-old girl’s days of hiding her true supernatural identity are tested when she’s embroiled in the mystery surrounding a prominent professor’s death.
The Palmers are a secretive supernatural family in Cornwall, England. Nicole and her brother, Dylan, pretend to only be Seers like their father and younger sister, Bells, but they’re actually Empyreals—rare, powerful hunters who can shape-shift into any being’s deadliest predator. Nicole knows that if she and Dylan ever transform, the Wake, or shadowy organization that controls the paranormal world and killed their Empyreal mother, will force them to join their ranks or die. Nicole believes she can decode a final message from her mother hidden in The Wild Hunt of Odin, a famous folkloric painting, but after Diana Westmoore, the professor and art collector who owns the painting, dies suddenly, the Wake send their best Empyreal assassin, Kyan McCarter, to retrieve the painting and hunt the supernatural killer. Kyan and Nicole are immediately drawn to each other, even though he’s lived monastically for centuries, and she’s been taught to avoid the Wake at all costs. Their forced proximity causes proverbial sparks to fly. Filled with intriguing worldbuilding, a swoony forbidden romance, and a diverse collection of fascinating mythological creatures who coexist in the human and supernatural worlds, this series opener is ideal for fans of Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, and Sally Green. Main characters are cued white, Dylan is queer, and the supporting cast includes diversity in race and sexual orientation.
A promising, page-turning romantasy. (Fantasy romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781335006950
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
A thrilling, heart-racing mystery with a page-turning budding romance at its center.
After a woman is shockingly murdered during a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C., two teens team up to find the real shooter before someone they both care about takes the fall.
Cooper King, a Black teen, has been directionless since the death of his mother, which is why he reluctantly agrees to help his mentor, Jason, loot stores during an anti–police violence protest, even though it goes against everything he was raised to believe. Cooper desperately wants to hide his involvement in the theft from his childhood friend and secret crush, Monique, a young poet, activist, and high-achieving student. But she becomes involved nonetheless after Jason, who’s her brother, is arrested for the murder. The pair are sure that Jason is innocent and resolve to clear his name by finding the culprit. Their investigation reveals a conspiratorial web of lies and relationships that complicates the potential motive and exposes the racial inequities, political corruption, and social unrest in their city. Each new clue and twist is revealed through Cooper’s and Monique’s alternating points of view, as they gradually piece together answers to an increasingly dangerous and high-stakes whodunit, all while falling in love. Brooks deftly explores the everyday growing pains of Black boyhood and girlhood alongside the threats of racial injustice and police violence faced by youths, often drawing parallels to real activists and movements.
A thrilling, heart-racing mystery with a page-turning budding romance at its center. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781250359933
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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