Though it doesn’t blaze new trails, it’s an enjoyable-enough ride.
Road-trip rebellion with romance.
A sophomore at the mostly girls’ boarding school where his mother is headmistress, Andrew is not living up to his potential. Not that he’s cared about much of anything since his parents split up, but when pushed too far at Thanksgiving, he runs away from home. At the bus station, Andrew hooks up with an unusual group of young folks who are traveling in a van and living effectively hand to mouth with what they can muster from busking, Dumpster diving and handouts. With the Freegans, as they call themselves, he journeys from home in upstate New York to New Mexico. While it’s not a particularly new plot, the characters become compelling. There’s anarchist Lyle, who is hiding something. Pudgy Asian-American Tim is an odd addition to a troupe of acrobats. G, the lesbian who first approaches Andrew, is ironically the straightest of the bunch, while Jesse, the driver, leader and master of ceremonies, is always positive and inclusive. However, it’s Emily, with her blonde dreadlocks and bare stomach, who captures Andrew’s attention and lust. The dynamics of the group, combined with quirky characters met along the way, provide a certain fascination for both readers and Andrew. Readers captivated by the characters will have a chance to appreciate Andrew’s somewhat slow growth from a wimp with a dick into someone with a spine and a brain.
Though it doesn’t blaze new trails, it’s an enjoyable-enough ride. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0262-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unfortunately for Meg and Shar, the goth girl and the perfect princess respectively, not only do the gods see them...
If two mismatched roommates fighting over a pair of high-fashion pumps accidentally push a gorgeous guy to his dismembering death but aren’t anywhere near Mt. Olympus, do ye gods still see it?
Unfortunately for Meg and Shar, the goth girl and the perfect princess respectively, not only do the gods see them unintentionally cause the demise of a young man, the girls are coerced into acting as temporary Sirens for Hades in order to help him collect on the expired contract of an elusive celebrity and thus clear their own tarnished record. Though Hades, Demeter, Persephone and Hera all play a part in potentially conjuring a secondary interest in Greek mythology for readers, far more label than deity names are dropped as the girls traipse from Underworld to fashion world in their mission. Less of a redeeming tale of teamwork against all odds and more of a frothy comedy glazed with oversexed, overdressed gods and goddesses, there still lies the message that friendship can emerge under even the most unlikely circumstances—but only if the dowdy one realizes she can be pretty and the pretty one realizes she can be compassionate by making over said dowdy one. A garish indulgence for young chick-lit devotees. (Paranormal chick lit. 12-15)Pub Date: June 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7387-2319-8
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite a few oversimplifications, this is a thoughtful and accessible story about the many meanings—positive and...
In an unnamed city, the son of drug-addicted parents finds a loving foster home, then loses everything.
Part of the publisher's Gravel Road line, which produces a junior version of “urban street lit” aimed at reluctant readers, the book is attractively packaged with a photographic cover, a small trim and plenty of white space on its pages. Sentences are short and vocabulary simple, but narrator TJ's voice is expressive, even though some complexity is sacrificed to move the story forward. TJ's ambivalence toward his family is clear from the first evocative scene, in which a fight between 5-year-old TJ and his father ends in laughter. His relationship to the Hillside Vipers, a gang that recruits TJ when he is 13, also rings true: TJ joins the gang because he is afraid not to. The emotional center of the book is Miss Dixie, the boundlessly warm proprietor of a group home where TJ lives after the state separates him from his family. Although the redemptive relationships TJ builds at Miss Dixie's are compelling, Miss Dixie's promise that TJ “will always have a place here” seems hard to believe, given how many young people need foster care.
Despite a few oversimplifications, this is a thoughtful and accessible story about the many meanings—positive and negative—of family. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61651-7-922
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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