A coming-of-age journey that would be strong if only it starred a believable teen
A poor California girl finds her world turned upside down when her mother marries into the Boston ultrarich.
At the beginning of her junior year on California’s central coast, India is popular and well-liked, but her mother, Hayley, has fallen in love with a high-society lawyer from the opposite coast, which wrenches her away from everything she knows. From Day 1, Theo’s daughter, Eloise, makes it very clear that India’s an unwelcome intruder both in Theo’s mansion and at Eloise’s exclusive prep school. Flashback nightmares reveal an India who was horrifically abused for much of her childhood while Hayley was absent, leaving her with trust issues as massive as her palatial new home. Befriending Eloise’s blue-blooded social group teaches class-conscious India that poor kids who grew up in trailers are not the only ones with problems; rich white prep school kids have their own traumas (India’s race goes unmentioned, implying that she is white; Eloise is white). India experiences a powerful journey to self-love and self-respect in the face of both classism and sexual entitlement, but she is so thinly drawn she’s hardly real. The choppy prose of her journey from public high school student who can only afford takeout three times a year to mansion-dwelling prep school attendee in Massachusetts boils down to a focus on high-end architecture.
A coming-of-age journey that would be strong if only it starred a believable teen . (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-373-21242-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Without sparks to sustain it, the story fizzles.
She’s going back in time; he’s going forward; they meet in 1961.
Still raw from her grandmother’s death, 18-year-old Abbi takes comfort in the fact that she is starting her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It’s the perfect place, one where the white narrator can make a fresh start and stay close to the memory of Grandma, who once walked the very same halls. But in her wildest dreams, Abbi never could have imagined just how close the two would be. For reasons she is desperate to understand, Abbi finds herself traveling backward through time, with each new stop providing clues to a mysterious family secret. To add to the intrigue, Abbi discovers she’s not the only time traveler. Will, a handsome white farm boy from 1927, is on his own journey forward through time, and Abbi gradually realizes that Will is not only linked to her family’s past, but also holds the key to her heart—past, present, and future. Though this may provide a quick fix for fans of time-travel romance, the novel fails to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. While Abbi is a likable-enough protagonist, the story meanders, and the dialogue often feels stilted. However, the greatest disappointment is that a potentially delicious romance between Abbi and Will fails to gain any traction for the first two-thirds of the novel.
Without sparks to sustain it, the story fizzles. (Science fiction. 14-16)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63079-070-7
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Switch/Capstone
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
The author of Printz Honor–winning Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) offers another stellar,...
Three college-bound Latino teens navigate their ways through senior year in El Paso.
Born to white parents, Salvador was adopted at the age of 3 by a gay, Mexican-American man and embraced by his extended family. His closest friends are Sam, an extroverted girl with a drama-filled life, and Fito, a gay boy who for all intents and purposes is homeless. Sal tries to maintain a calm, controlled life, but when a student hurls the word “faggot” at him, he responds quickly with his fists. He starts to wonder if he’s inherited violent tendencies from his biological father, whom he never knew. In dialogue-rich prose, Sáenz explores Sal’s internal struggles with his churning emotions during a year of life-changing events: “all of a sudden I felt like I was living my life in a relay race and there was no one else to hand the baton to.” Journallike chapters of varying lengths are prefaced with spare titles—“WFTD = Comfort”; “Me. Alone. Not.” The well-constructed pacing of the novel, with its beautifully expansive prose punctuated by text messages between Sal and Sam, demonstrates the author’s talent for capturing the richness of relationships among family and friends.
The author of Printz Honor–winning Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) offers another stellar, gentle look into the emotional lives of teens on the cusp of adulthood. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-58650-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
