A dreamlike but disjointed mystery with vivid imagery.
A teenager and an older man investigate a boy’s drowning in Robinson’s novel.
Yan is a 17-year-old living in Bangkok. He and his best friend, Toi, writes stories in which Yan is a detective and Toi is his doctor assistant. Then Yan gets a crush on a girl named Fah, and Toi stops coming to school. Yan is so infatuated with Fah, in fact, that he nearly forgets about his pal. Fah quickly proves to be a bad influence, but he follows her into trouble willingly. Across town, a scientist named Mr. Torpong becomes preoccupied with a cloud in the sky that his equipment picked up, but which doesn’t seem to exist in reality. When he tells others about it, they don’t take him seriously. His story intersects with Yan’s when he learns of a boy who recently drowned; Mr. Torpong feels that Yan may have known him. Could this be Toi, who suddenly disappeared? A police sergeant named Mongkut is investigating the youth’s death and suspects foul play, but the investigation goes slowly. These intersecting stories play out across the novel and finally intersect in an intense climax. The story as a whole has a surreal quality with a bit of magical realism; there’s an intriguing contrast between Mr. Torpong, who seems to be at the end of his life, and Yan, who’s at the beginning of his. The dense, meandering prose often lingers on imagery rather than action: “He envisioned the sun, and then the crescent moon with the morning star sinking into the east, and then the morning light withdrawn. The assiduous black of night began to chisel out each the billion stars inside his intellect until—voilà the revealing spark!” There are mythic elements—references to folktales, mythology, and more recent tales of Sherlock Holmes—and recurring motifs, such as a black-and-white cat that visits Yan and Mr. Torpong, which make for an intriguing mélange of influences. However, the narrative generally wanders, and the story sometimes feels hard to follow as a result.
A dreamlike but disjointed mystery with vivid imagery.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 979-8218186722
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Ruy Lopez Editions
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping tribute to resilience.
A girl with amnesia and a boy suspected of harming his girlfriend overcome adversity to find the answers they seek.
A 17-year-old girl wakes up in a ditch, disoriented and with no memory of who she is or what happened. Found by the Alton, Oregon, police, she is brought to the station. Soon after, Wayne Boone, a man claiming to be her father, shows up. He has photos of her on his phone and her high school ID card, with the name Mary Boone. Wayne convinces the police to release Mary into his custody. The more time Mary spends with Wayne, however, the weirder things get: He’s unaware of her food allergy, and as her memories start to return, they don’t conform with Wayne’s versions of her life. In the town of Washington City, across the Willamette River, Drew is in a bad place. His girlfriend, Lola, has disappeared, and Drew was the last person to see her. His adoptive dads and cousin are the only ones who support him; everyone else, including the sheriff, thinks he’s responsible for Lola’s disappearance. Intent on finding Lola, Drew finds help in an unlikely ally, Lola’s best friend, Autumn, who is the sheriff’s daughter. But will they find Lola in time? The two immersive storylines bring to life the trials and frustrations each main character faces in this debut, which is a thrilling delight right up to the unexpected and bittersweet conclusion. Most characters are cued white; one of Drew’s dads is Guatemalan.
A gripping tribute to resilience. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781728270111
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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