A lackluster mystery that bows under the weight of narrative technique.
Teen drama with a murderous twist.
When 17-year-old British girl Eva goes missing, her friends and family hope for the best—but when her body is found murdered in the woods, suspicion quickly turns toward her boyfriend, Luke. The relationship between Luke and Eva is slowly revealed to have been toxic and damaging, making Luke the perfect suspect, but that role is actually quite popular, with Eva having had a secret relationship and suspicious strangers appearing at pivotal moments in the narrative. But can Luke’s lingering allies find out enough to exonerate him before his trial? As the story is told in multiple voices, including through Eva’s diary, online exchanges, and narrative from several characters’ first-person points of view, the drama and mystery have to work hard to surface amongst the confusing shifts in perspectives. Twists and turns abound in the novel, though often without logic or meaningful contribution to the plot, such as when Luke’s friend hears that he is pleading guilty to Eva’s murder, but confusingly, he claims he only said as much to a fellow inmate to seem more intimidating. Characters mainly default to white with the exception of some secondary characters.
A lackluster mystery that bows under the weight of narrative technique. (Mystery. 14-16)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-349-00317-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atom
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Paranormal romance jumps the weresnake
When a Romeo and Juliet mobster romance just isn't enough.
A year after a terrible experience, 17-year-old Rosa Alcantara is leaving home. She's left Brooklyn for Sicily, where she will be joining her sister in the family business: organized crime. An unlikable petty thief, Rosa thinks she's prepared for joining Cosa Nostra. But there are reasons beyond the Mafia to fear her ancestral home. Her attraction to Alessandro Carnevare, the scion of a rival (and stronger) Mafia house, can only get her into trouble. Both the Alcantaras and Carnevares are hiding an unbelievable secret. Alessandro, like the rest of his family, has a feline form: a monstrous panther. Meanwhile, Rosa discovers that the Alcantaras transform into enormous snakes. The shapeshifting makes for a more deadly rivalry—or a more twisted romantic pairing. On top of everything else, there's a kidnapped mob schoolgirl, a murdered mother, an attempted coup, family betrayals, a tragic lesbian relationship and whispers of a conspiracy, all told in choppy, infelicitous prose. (It's possible the clunkiness of the prose may be laid at the feet of the unidentified translator from the German.) A smaller subset of plot threads might have allowed room for Rosa to grow into a more than just a survivor.
Paranormal romance jumps the weresnake . (Paranormal romance. 14-16)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-200606-6
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
Readers who relish self-indulgent inner monologue and expect dramatic arguments, seething resentment, tearful heartbreak,...
A “good girl” experiences an unplanned pregnancy and its aftermath.
Evelyn is a classic good girl, earning top grades and excelling in the art studio as well as on the track. When her parents start paying more attention to their acrimoniously crumbling marriage than to their daughter, she punishes them by becoming drinking, drugging, sex-having Bad Evelyn. Unfortunately, Bad Evelyn’s exploits become a punishment for her, too, as her protection-free sex with Todd leads to an unplanned pregnancy. Evelyn’s situation is the stuff of classic YA problem novels: What will she do about her pregnancy? How will she live with her choices? Will her heart, in fact, go on? Fearing expulsion from her competitive and deeply conservative Catholic high school, Evelyn relocates to Chicago to live with her aunts Linda and Nora and their daughters while she makes her choices and protects her GPA. Evelyn is a tough nut to crack, and she’s not particularly likable, but through all her self-contradictory crabbiness and emotionally withholding fears, readers may see someone recognizably real. First-time author Carter drags her narrative out, making readers angst along with Evelyn as she chronicles every week of her pregnancy and beyond.
Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59990-958-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
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