A must-read for lost souls everywhere.
A magical realist romance told in verse explores the many transitions of life: from homelands to new homes, from childhood to adulthood, from life to death and back again.
The daughter of two immigrant legacies, Ilana Lopez knows what it is to live with ghosts of the past. On her mother’s side, there is a 500-year-long Jewish journey from Spain to Cuba to Miami Beach, and on her father’s side, a flight from 20th-century totalitarianism in the former Czechoslovakia. It’s the phantom of her family’s struggles that sees her exiled to Prague the summer of her 16th year: Separating Ilana from her friends and her beloved violin, her parents hope she will turn her attention to preparing for a stable, successful, American future rather than dreams of music. In Prague, she stays with her wild Aunt Žofie and stumbles upon a long-abandoned Jewish cemetery on the hill behind her house. Lonely and longing for understanding, Ilana learns about the heavy Jewish history of Prague as the ghost of a blue-eyed boy with dark curls wends his way into her beating heart. The past is alive in Ilana’s Prague, and it’s alive in this story that combines modern adolescent concerns, magical realism, and religious themes in pristine verse. An ode to the Diaspora and to the many folktales and myths populating Ilana’s mixed heritage, Romero’s luscious work dives into dark, painful caverns and emerges in sprays of enthralling hope.
A must-read for lost souls everywhere. (Verse novel. 13-18)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68263-338-0
Page Count: 452
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
A dizzying, intimate romance.
Rowan teams up with her academic nemesis to win a citywide scavenger hunt.
Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been rivals in a never-ending game of one-upmanship since freshman year. Now, on the last day of senior year, Rowan hopes to best Neil once and for all as valedictorian, then win Howl, a scavenger hunt with a $5,000 cash prize. She also hopes to sneak away to her favorite romance author’s book signing; no one’s ever respected her passion for the genre, not even her children’s book author/illustrator parents. But Rowan’s named salutatorian, and vengeful classmates plot to end her and Neil’s reign. At first their partnership is purely strategic, but as the pair traverse the city, they begin to open up. Rowan learns that Neil is Jewish too and can relate to both significant cultural touchstones and experiences of casual anti-Semitism. As much as Rowan tries to deny it, real feelings begin to bloom. Set against a lovingly evoked Seattle backdrop, Rowan and Neil’s relationship develops in an absorbing slow burn, with clever banter and the delicious tension of first love. Issues of class, anti-Semitism, and sex are discussed frankly. Readers will emerge just as obsessed with this love story as Rowan is with her beloved romance novels. Rowan’s mother is Russian Jewish and Mexican, and her father is American Jewish and presumably White; most other characters are White.
A dizzying, intimate romance. (author’s note) (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4024-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Roll to the beat of summer love and loss in this heartfelt debut.
Jaelyn is a 16-year-old skater whose life changes dramatically in one brief summer.
Jae is dealing with shifts in several of her relationships: There’s strain and distance between her and her best friend, Noelle, difficulties with learning to trust her dad after he’s repeatedly disappointed her, and the blooming of romance with the cute new boy, Trey. Other life changes unfold in the landscape around Jae as her Indianapolis community becomes another target for developers who come in and try to “push us out, / price everything just / outside / of our reach, / our possibility.” When she learns that her local rink, WestSide Roll, will close to make way for a brewery, Jae is overwhelmed by the grief of losing the space that allows her the most freedom to be herself, a bold Black girl. She decides to see what she can do to recapture that spirit for herself and others. Using verse, Vinson provides concise, lyrical insights into the trials of painful transitions for multiple generations held together by disappearing community havens. The book’s flow and plot are smooth and easy to follow. However, Jae’s interpersonal conflicts are unevenly developed, leaving readers unmoored thanks to some rushed resolutions.
Roll to the beat of summer love and loss in this heartfelt debut. (Verse fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593858592
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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