A saccharine tale lacking any dramatic verve.
A teenager pining for adventure in his sleepy town finds more than he bargained for when he pursues a jewel thief in Holt’s YA mystery novel.
In 1958, Lincoln Moss Jr. leads a happy if undramatic life; soon to graduate high school, he works part-time at a local gas station and is saving money to buy his first car. He loves his girlfriend, Katie—she has a “heart of gold,” one example of the army of clichés deployed by the author, whose prose traffics heavily in shopworn platitudes. Lincoln also seems a bit bored by his slow-moving life—he is “longing for adventure and my little town seemed like an unlikely place to find it.” To commemorate Katie’s 18th birthday, he buys her an expensive jade ring (she’s about to head off to college, and he frets anxiously about the consequences of her absence). While the ring is being sized, it is stolen from the jewelry store, a loss Katie experiences with anguish. Lincoln decides to undertake his own investigation of the crime and quickly comes to suspect a “leggy blonde” who visited his gas station in a flashy gray Corvette. Holt’s novel chronicles Lincoln’s sudden discovery of both freedom and adventure, and the maturation that comes with it. The never-fully realized backdrop of the story is the absence of Lincoln’s father, whose own adventure—his participation in World War II—ended in death. The drama is never fully captivating; there is something antiseptic about Holt’s writing, even when describing a scenario in which Lincoln’s life is threatened. The entire narrative has a tender, dream-like quality, bereft of grittiness or real darkness, brimming with sentimental sweetness. One can’t help but feel that it was written to be easily digestible for a younger audience, and to be blandly inoffensive for a broader one.
A saccharine tale lacking any dramatic verve.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798352373019
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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