A darkly complex read.
Four years ago, when best friends Solomon and Ash were 12, something happened that neither remembers.
The two reacted in very different ways: Ash struggles with depression, and Solomon has succumbed to serious mental illness. He dwells in Darkside, where dinosaurs live alongside humans and othersiders, humans with magical powers. In Darkside, Ash is a Refugee Princess under a spell, and Solomon has a crush on her bodyguard, Niv, who for safety has moved her from one undisclosed location to another ever since the riot when othersiders and humans clashed. In Ash’s reality, she attends Hudson High, where her Solomon sometimes attends class and his stepfather, hunky Mr. Barrett, is football coach and vice principal. She also hooks up with Connor, Solomon’s stepbrother. In Solomon’s world, a wave of anti-othersider violence coincides with vandalism and dangerous pranks in Ash’s, and the time the friends spend together in both places jars memories of the traumatic event that shattered their lives. Is it possible that their struggling friendship could be instrumental in saving two worlds? Miller (Blackfish City, 2018, etc.) delivers a tale of friendship and dovetailing realities: Each teen narrates from their own reality in alternating chapters, and the two narratives bleed into one another in a way that at times borders on confusing. The worldbuilding in Darkside will feel familiar to fans of fantasy. Ash is white; Solomon is white and Jewish.
A darkly complex read. (Fantasy. 15-18)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-245674-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
An unpolished grab bag of incidents that tries to make a point about racial inequality.
Two teenage girls—Lena and Campbell—come together following a football game night gone wrong.
Campbell, who is white and new to Atlanta, now attends the school where Lena, who is black, is a queen bee. At a game between McPherson High and their rival, a racist slur leads to fights, and shots are fired. The unlikely pair are thrown together as they try to escape the dangers on campus only to find things are even more perilous on the outside; a police blockade forces them to walk through a dangerous neighborhood toward home. En route, a peaceful protest turns into rioting, and the presence of police sets off a clash with protestors with gruesome consequences. The book attempts to tackle racial injustice in America by offering two contrasting viewpoints via narrators of different races. However, it portrays black characters as violent and criminal and the white ones as excusably ignorant and subtly racist, seemingly redeemed by moments when they pause to consider their privileges and biases. Unresolved story arcs, underdeveloped characters, and a jumpy plot that tries to pack too much into too small a space leave the story lacking. This is not a story of friendship but of how trauma can forge a bond—albeit a weak and questionable one—if only for a night.
An unpolished grab bag of incidents that tries to make a point about racial inequality. (Fiction. 15-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7889-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh, funny, college-set, coming-of-age tale.
Elliot McHugh chronicles a freshman year of college filled with new friends and sexual escapades.
In this story loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma, Elliot is an outgoing, undeclared, new student at Boston’s Emerson College. She immediately becomes close friends with her roommate, Lucy Garabedian, who comes from a large Armenian American family and has far more ambitious college and career plans than she does. Elliot’s primary goal is to sleep with many people of any gender and with no commitments. This comes to fruition but isn’t as fulfilling as she thought, especially as she dwells on a conversation with Rose Knightley, her gorgeous resident adviser, about what constitutes good sex. Additionally, her courses are more of a struggle than she expected, and her behavior results in friendship hurdles. As the year progresses, Elliot learns more about who she is, what she wants, and what it takes to be a good friend and romantic partner. Elliot’s meta, first-person narration is conversational and often hilarious, with footnotes and sections directly addressing readers and inviting their participation. While it’s sometimes over-the-top, it all fits with Elliot’s exuberant persona. She’s a well-crafted, messy character who makes mistakes but ultimately means well. Unabashedly sex-positive and queer, this story is mostly light and breezy, but it has serious moments as well. Elliot is assumed White; there is some ethnic diversity in secondary characters.
A fresh, funny, college-set, coming-of-age tale. (Fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4813-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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