A sympathetic and painfully accurate rendering of anime nerds figuring out high school relationships.
An ode to adolescent love of—and through—anime.
Cherie is starting high school just like she left middle school: as an awkward, anime-obsessed introvert. That is, until she meets Naomi, who recognizes and admires her fan art, sparking a friendship. Naomi shares her mom’s Japanese-style bento lunch with Cherie and another new friend, Miro, who’s anime-curious. Cherie crushes hard on Naomi, but they, and just about everyone else, fall for Jenny, a charismatic, inclusive older student who’s president of the school anime club. The complicated social dynamics of who influences and crushes on whom threaten to upend their relationships. The New York City environment, complete with a super-cool, Kinokuniya-inspired bookstore and cafe, will leave readers pining for their own pop-culture haven just a train ride away. Between the depictions of delicious karaage, tamagoyaki, onigiri, chocolate cornets, boba tea, and steamed buns, this book will also inspire quite an appetite, The romantic knots are sweet, and multiple anime and manga homages will leap out at fans—like Ouran High School Host Club, Soul Eater, Inuyasha, and Death Note, for starters. The characters’ facial expressions and reactions frequently make use of visual tropes from manga. Cherie and Miro present white, while Naomi and her family are Japanese; her family’s dialogue is presented in both Japanese and English. Jenny has black hair, brown eyes, and light tan skin.
A sympathetic and painfully accurate rendering of anime nerds figuring out high school relationships. (author’s note, process notes, sketches) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781250348920
Page Count: 272
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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