A quick moving and emotionally charged but ultimately underdeveloped novel that explores an important subject.
A young woman is sexually abused by a close family friend in this latest novel in verse from veteran poet Sones (Saving Red, 2016, etc.).
Fourteen-year-old Lily has long harbored a crush on her father’s friend Luke and is thrilled to learn that he is going to stay with her family upon his return from a research trip to Kenya. She fervently hopes that he’ll see she is no longer a little kid, “Now / I feel more like a butterfly— / a butterfly who can’t decide / which wings to wear.” Initially, Lily is thrilled when he seems to be returning her interest, but this gives way to palpable dread and shame as he pushes her into progressively more threatening situations. Factors that often play into sexual abuse emerge within this harrowing story, including Luke’s grooming of Lily from a young age and his use of threats to keep her from telling anyone. She becomes isolated from her best friends, Rose and Taylor, and she is already accustomed to her father’s hurtful emotional absence from her life. While realistic, these details sometimes feel a bit rote. All of the main characters seem to be white by default; Luke is English, Taylor is gay, and a caring teacher of Lily’s is described as having brown skin.
A quick moving and emotionally charged but ultimately underdeveloped novel that explores an important subject. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-237031-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heart-melting story of self-acceptance and self-actualization.
A 16-year-old Black Type A overachiever enlists the help of a free spirit to unlock a truer version of herself.
Audre is a budding therapist who’s dreaming of escaping Brooklyn to stay in Malibu Beach with her father for the summer—Dadifornia is the highlight of her year. Her close relationship with her mother (who first appeared in Williams’ 2021 novel for adults, Seven Days in June) is unraveling, and Audre feels displaced thanks to a new baby sister and stepfather and ongoing home renovations. But her summer plans implode when her father cancels her trip to California because his wife is having pregnancy complications. Forced to re-evaluate everything, Audre decides to write a teen self-help book to help her get into Stanford. When she struggles to come up with original ideas, her best friend, Reshma, tells anxious, awkward Audre that she needs to live a bit more. Reshma creates an Experience Challenge for Audre, and the girls agree that Bash Henry would be a perfect “fun consultant.” Recent Hillcrest Prep graduate Bash is a track star from California with dysfunctional parents (a white mother and Black father), who’s intrigued by the prospect of helping Audre. The teens’ mental health awareness is realistically portrayed, and their romance provides a nice counterbalance to the narrative’s more serious themes. Readers will resonate with the well-developed relationship dynamics among the central and peripheral characters.
A heart-melting story of self-acceptance and self-actualization. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780316511087
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Compelling relationships and characters dazzle like a quinceañera tiara.
Being a professional princess isn’t as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be.
Carmen Aguilar’s summer job is the only thing standing between her and the last credit she needs to graduate from high school. Working as a princess for hire at children’s birthday parties in Miami is grueling—and goes from bad to worse when Carmen’s ex-flame, Mauro Reyes, is hired to play the Beast to her Belle. Overwhelming awkwardness and the temptation to rehash the downfall of their relationship has Carmen on the brink of quitting when the whole company is hired to work the quinceañera of someone with whom Carmen is all too familiar: Ariana, her dramatic and entitled cousin. After a major falling out almost four years ago, the cousins and their families have barely spoken. The tías are hoping that this quince will mend their family ties and bring them back together permanently, but Carmen can barely stand to be in the same room as Ariana, let alone tolerate the months of rehearsals required for the big day. Tempers fly, old wounds are reopened, and romance is in the air as this princess endures complex family dynamics and the infuriating attention of her very own Prince Charming. Characters are well developed and dialogue crackles in this energetic tale. Carmen is Cuban and Puerto Rican, and many other characters are Latinx.
Compelling relationships and characters dazzle like a quinceañera tiara. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299683-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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