The abduction of 13-year-old Jody Shaw has absolutely devastated the small, close-knit community of Pineview, Calif. Though the Shaw tragedy has affected everyone, readers see it through the eyes of 15-year-old Samara Taylor, whose father is the Shaws’ pastor and spokesperson. Even before Jody goes missing, Sam is floundering—her mother has spent the last few weeks at a facility being treated for alcoholism, and her father is having trouble coping. When Jody disappears, Sam’s faith in God and in both of her parents is further challenged. Her new friendship with Nick Shaw, Jody’s older brother and a potential suspect in Jody’s disappearance, could either lead to her salvation or destruction. Which will it be? And what becomes of Jody? Bold-faced newscasts periodically interrupt the narrative, providing updates on the Shaw case and maintaining a sustained sense of urgency. This rare combination of in-depth character study and gripping mystery relies on a strong sense of emotional truth to do justice to some tough subject matter without graphic or violent scenes. Riveting. (Mystery. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-03604-7
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
Ultimately, this is no more than a surface-level exploration of nontraditional religious faith.
Jacob’s faith and commitment to his cult’s restrictive lifestyle waver when he meets two outsider teens who introduce ideas from the outside world.
Cult leader Father Grace’s fire-and-brimstone preachings about Armageddon require that followers adhere to an ascetic lifestyle. But Jacob’s burgeoning sexuality and his attraction to Lynna, a Worldly girl on the neighboring ranch who provides him with tantalizing hints of life beyond the cult’s chain-link fence, spur him to begin scrutinizing the cult leadership. Jacob’s misgivings grow when Tobias, a troubled new arrival to the cult, bluntly and relentlessly calls the leadership and lifestyle of the cult “bullshit.” Though readers may sympathize with Jacob’s crisis of faith, their overall engagement with the novel may suffer from Hautman’s reliance on popular stereotypes of cult lifestyles. Many of his worldbuilding tools, from the terminally boring food to Father Grace’s polygamy and fixation on teenage wives, have been explored in books for teens before. Hautman does resist painting the world beyond the cult as perfect—politicians are corrupt and Lynna’s uncle attempts to molest her—but these harsh realities only make Jacob’s alternative of life outside of the cult sound as grim as life inside.
Ultimately, this is no more than a surface-level exploration of nontraditional religious faith. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7418-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Truly outstanding literary moments distinguish this quiet search for identity.
Ana’s move from an isolated Mennonite colony in Bolivia to Toronto is both a culture shock and an opportunity for Ana to search for her mother, who disappeared 10 years earlier.
Alternating chapters compare snapshots of Ana’s life in Colony Felicidad with her adaptation to modern city life—from seeing ethnic diversity to public school. The white 14-year-old’s focus on emotional relationships in both settings reveals universal truths about human nature’s highs and lows. In the colony, everyone knew each other and greeted each other with affectionate nicknames. Kindness is also found in much larger Toronto, as two white neighborhood teens shepherd Ana through her grade nine year. Conversely, both settings also have sinister sides. Understanding her mother’s disappearance requires facing the abuse and potential lawlessness that exists within Colony Felicidad, while Toronto’s dangers are evident in Ana’s musings about an unsolved Toronto kidnapping and her private navigation of potentially inappropriate attentions from her French teacher. Lyrical writing imbues simple scenes with complex emotional undercurrents, as when a character slides “a plate of dumplings onto the table before snapping apart two chopsticks and jabbing one into a soft, sauce-speckled belly.” The motions feel almost casually violent, slyly suggesting untrustworthiness. It’s these descriptions that truly develop the novel’s mystery-laden tension.
Truly outstanding literary moments distinguish this quiet search for identity. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-91811-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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