Both earnest and nuanced without seeking causes or cures
A 16-year-old English girl with too much anxiety to speak in public makes a new friend.
Steffi no longer identifies as selectively mute, though she still finds it nearly impossible to speak in public. She’s currently diagnosed with a range of anxiety and communication disorders: healthier but still fragile. And Tem, her sole childhood friend, has switched schools, leaving her alone. Nevertheless, Steffi’s been doing cognitive behavioral therapy and has started medication; she’s determined to make this the year when she speaks in school. A teacher introduces Steffi to a new boy at school, Rhys, because he’s deaf, and Steffi knows a little British Sign Language. A very little—Steffi’s BSL and Rhys’ lip reading are adequate, but as their friendship grows, they switch fluidly among sign, fingerspelling, writing, and texts. Her deepening relationship with Rhys is exciting, but is he with her only because she speaks BSL? Steffi’s improving mental health might enable her to go to university despite parental ambivalence, but her expanding social life alienates her from Tem. There’s broad representation in this romantic coming-of-age novel: of perception of disability (Steffi wants to be “normal,” Rhys wouldn’t choose to hear); of family support (Steffi’s infantalizing mum, Rhys’ BSL–fluent family); of a racially diverse community (Steffi’s white, Tem’s black, Rhys is biracial black/white, and their community is realistically diverse).
Both earnest and nuanced without seeking causes or cures . (Fiction. 14-16)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0241-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Skip.
The teenage detectives from The Amateurs (2016) return, sent on a chase by their adversary.
It’s three months after Seneca, Aerin, Maddox, and Madison discovered who killed Seneca’s mother and Aerin’s sister, but the escape of the killer—their former friend, Brett—is haunting them. Then Chelsea Dawson, an Instagram-obsessed white girl, disappears. The next day, the disappearance is inexplicably posted on Case Not Closed, a cold-case message board, with a post from Brett that draws the Amateurs’ suspicions. While biracial Seneca takes the lead in the investigation, torn between catching Brett and dealing with her confusing feelings for white boy Maddox, white girl Aerin is weepy and distracted by thoughts of her sister. Korean-American Madison barely registers in solving the case or with readers, and Maddox seems mostly concerned about how white boy Jeff, Chelsea’s ex and a suspect in her disappearance, is apparently putting the moves on Seneca. Throughout the novel, Brett is spinning his web to teach Chelsea a lesson and make the Amateurs realize they’re outclassed. While there’s enough back story to explain their first case, the immature and two-dimensional foursome are amateurs in both name and ability. Unlike the first, this so-called mystery is utterly lacking in suspense or tension, overflows with leaps of logic, and offers nothing to indicate the teen detectives are any match for Brett—a fatal flaw.
Skip. (Mystery. 14-16)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-4228-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unsurprising and overlong.
Romance blossoms across class lines.
Even though he didn’t commit the crime he was accused of, Drix—short for Hendrix—has spent 10 months (confusingly and frequently called a year) in a special program to end the school-to-prison pipeline, started by the governor as part of his bid for the U.S. Senate. Elle, full name Ellison, is the governor’s daughter, expected by her ultracontrolling parents to be a perfect blue-eyed blonde political accessory. After a meet-cute with looming menace, the two white teens are drawn to each other. Drix knows Elle deserves the best, aka better than him (a confusing mirror of her parents’ attitude), and dating her could destroy his second chance. Elle doesn’t think so, and throughout the overstuffed, repetitious narrative, she works to change Drix’s mind and prove to her parents she is committed to her envisioned future as a coder. Their romance is put to the test when Drix discovers who truly committed the crime he did the time for and Elle tries to intercede. Although the perils of the school-to-prison pipeline and life in politics are constantly told, they are rarely shown, causing little emotional impact. Further undercutting the romance is Elle’s petulant naiveté, which jars against Drix’s didactic approach.
Unsurprising and overlong. (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-373-21237-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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