Snow attempts to engage with deep topics but ultimately serves up a shallow story.
Girls who have been close friends for years face their senior prom night with trepidation.
The action takes place across two timelines. The first is April 18-19, the day and night of senior prom. In alternating chapters, classmates Jenna, Ket, and Rosie narrate first-person accounts detailing their thoughts, hopes, and fears about their plan to go to prom as a no-date group with their friend Elin. In the book’s opening sentence, readers learn that Elin tried to kill herself. The second timeline is told in the third person, describing Elin’s life starting the previous Aug. 25 and progressing until it catches up to the prom timeline, when Elin starts narrating in the first person. The book is set in Park City, Utah. There are weak nods to diversity. Ket, who has two lesbian moms, is “Indian,” although it is unclear if she is intended to be Asian Indian or American Indian; her last name is West-Beauchamp, and her moms are assumed white along with most other characters. First-time author Snow has created a lackluster novel in which motivations are murky, romantic subplots are banal, drama is manufactured and illogical, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the big reveal at the end about why Elin tried to kill herself and who saved her is surprisingly anticlimactic.
Snow attempts to engage with deep topics but ultimately serves up a shallow story. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-3357-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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