A riveting, thought-provoking read that examines the effects of mental health on familial bonds.
Emmy attempts to find her missing older sister, Rose, by immersing herself in a series of complicated relationships that enigmatic Rose inhabited.
Emmy is a Black teen who had a tight bond with her sister even though, for the past 6 years following their parents’ divorce, they lived in different states: Emmy moved to San Francisco with her mother, while Rose stayed in Dayton with their father. Emmy is just beginning to question her family role of academically brilliant but socially stunted younger sibling when Rose goes missing. The search to figure out what happened helps Emmy gain a better perspective on their relationship. Alongside Emmy, readers witness Rose’s battle with depression as Emmy investigates the disappearance. The central characters experience stigma related to mental health but find different treatment modalities. Rose and Emily’s father’s social anxiety and mild case of agoraphobia begins to ease as he starts dating again. Their close childhood friend, Levi, manages his ADHD with cognitive behavioral therapy. Barriers to seeking treatment are evidenced in Rose’s journey. Through the characters’ varied experiences, readers acquire a mental health vocabulary that helps them engage more fully with the story. Ultimately, this thoughtful novel explores how two sisters’ identities were shaped by their foundational relationships. What emerges is a complex picture of mental illness and the stigma that can keep people silent.
A riveting, thought-provoking read that examines the effects of mental health on familial bonds. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-25622-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A winning game of feelingsball.
A former football star, who never thought she’d play again after she came out as transgender, steps back onto the field for one last season to help her team win state.
Grace Woodhouse used to know where she belonged. She had Division I schools lined up to recruit her, but that was before what happened during playoffs last year, before she came out as trans, and before she quit the team. Although her single father and new friend group support her, Grace feels lost as her senior year begins. When one of her old teammates asks her to help him with his technique, she quickly realizes that he and the other captains are hoping for more than her expertise from the sidelines—they want her to rejoin the team. Grace can’t resist the opportunity to play again, but her return draws unwanted national attention that makes her question her future and who she wants to be. Flashback chapters written in the second-person present tense bring Grace’s past to life, which helps maintain momentum and makes her emotional journey feel more immersive. A heartfelt, goofy, and diverse cast of secondary characters surround Grace, who’s white, as she navigates self-doubt, friendship, complicated feelings for her ex-girlfriend, and what she wants to do after graduation. Overall, this coming-of-age sports narrative is honest, gentle, and hopeful.
A winning game of feelingsball. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781646145027
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
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