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
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A book that seamlessly brings readers along on a journey of impact and empowerment.
A manifesto for budding feminists.
At the core of this engaging novel are besties Chelsea, who is Irish- and Italian-American and into fashion and beauty, and Jasmine, who is African-American, loves the theater, and pushes back against bias around size (“I don’t need your fake compliments, your pity. I know I’m beautiful. Inside and out”). They and their sidekicks, half-Japanese/half-Lebanese Nadine and Puerto Rican Isaac, grow into first-class activists—simultaneously educating their peers and readers. The year gets off to a rocky start at their progressive, social justice–oriented New York City high school: Along with the usual angst many students experience, Jasmine’s father is terminally ill with cancer, and after things go badly in both their clubs, Jasmine and Chelsea form a women’s rights club which becomes the catalyst for their growth as they explore gender inequality and opportunities for change. This is an inspiring look at two strong-willed teens growing into even stronger young women ready to use their voices and take on the world, imploring budding feminists everywhere to “join the revolution.” The book offers a poetic balance of dialogue among the main characters, their peers, and the adults in their lives. The exquisite pacing, which intersperses everyday teen conflicts with weightier issues, demonstrates how teens long to be heard and taken seriously.
A book that seamlessly brings readers along on a journey of impact and empowerment. (resources for young activists, endnotes) (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0008-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2019
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