A clever concept novel combining teen angst, social media and celebrity—a promising plot for a new YA series.
An 18-year-old associate producer of a website designed to revive a fading teen star’s career recalls its escalating, unintended consequences in this “behind-the-scenes” fiction debut.
Narrator Rhiannon Holte, who’s also listed as the author of this YA novel, meets Anya Allen, former child TV actress, while working at a Hooters-type place in New York. Both are 18, and Anya has been on the skids since Extra Points, a show about gymnasts—“like Glee but with uneven bars”—got cancelled four years ago. The girls quit waitressing to launch makemeover.us, Anya’s idea to recapture the spotlight. Each week, the site posts a new makeover category (clothing, hair, etc.), and fans have 24 hours to post suggestions, then 48 hours to vote on them. Anya will be filmed enacting the winning suggestions, and the site shuts down if she ever balks. Rhiannon “unfortunately” adds another rule—fans come up with the category every four weeks. The site begins nicely enough, with fans choosing an audition outfit, etc., but it soon attracts a huge following as the makeovers expand to plastic surgery. Rhiannon, who hints at her own troubles following the death of a sister, gets caught up in the frenzy. She helps Anya to negotiate a cool comeback part yet also launches a “makeover” campaign to dump Jake, the star’s on-again, off-again rehab boyfriend, who provides first-person commentary several times in this narrative. By novel’s end, a bomb literally goes off; Anya gets increasingly shaky, and the fans bray for actual blood, leaving Rhiannon to step up to fulfill the site’s guarantees. Author Holte (whomever she may be) has created a nifty “reality show” experience, including embedded links to pictures of her characters and to makemeover.us. The narrative is an entertaining, fast read, with Holte ably leveraging the suspense of her site’s countdown rules. This slim novel is a bit light on character development, however, although its somewhat open ending may signal more installments ahead for Rhiannon and crew.
A clever concept novel combining teen angst, social media and celebrity—a promising plot for a new YA series.Pub Date: May 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0578144085
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Exposure Productions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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