Dives into difficult, legitimate issues with great form.
How do you stand up to abuse from the person who’s always encouraged you to be your best?
Ria is a diver. She’s spent years honing her technique with her longtime coach, Benny, but when she has to withdraw from a critical competition, Benny pulls her from the team. Now, at the start of her senior year and with no contingency plan, Ria feels like she has nothing. Aimless in her Virginia town, she literally runs into childhood friend Cotton, who introduces her to his passion—mapping unexplored local caves. The two already have a shared history from their elementary school special education classes; Ria has ADHD while Cotton shows autistic behaviors and has trauma from the long-ago, unresolved disappearance of his little sister. Their mutual romance is sweet, complicated, painful, and honest—like any other. Ria knows fear from diving, but she must come to terms with Benny’s abuse and find the strength to overcome this other fear. The text explores this sensitively, revealing the way student athletes can feel as if they belong to their coaches as well as the way victims can become trapped by abusers. Readers hear a lot about Benny, but the scenes in which he and Ria are together are scarce, making their relationship more implied than realized until later in the story. Whiteness is assumed as the norm for the cast.
Dives into difficult, legitimate issues with great form. (Fiction. 14-19)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289828-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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