Fire forges historical and contemporary connections among three troubled teens.
The three teen narrators could easily star in their own books. Instead, their voices and lives intertwine in an implausible plot full of coincidences and conveniently chatty villains. Rebellious white redhead Molly Mavity writes sarcastic, tense-shifting letters to her friend Pepper, who lies in a coma. Molly, whose arsonist father will soon be executed, is convinced her mother is alive—despite her suicide. Ibrahim “Pepper” Al-Yusef, a Kuwaiti immigrant with epilepsy and a comic-relief seizure pug, wryly weaves his views on everything from friendship to racism into a series of essays assigned by a long-suffering teacher as a condition of graduation. Both gradually reveal how they followed a stranger’s clues to Berlin in search of Ava Dreyman, a teen from the former East Germany who became an Anne Frank–esque symbol for the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ava, whose diary of resisting the Stasi, escaping to America, and finding romance ends with her murder in 1989, connects Molly and Pepper in a far-flung way. Though Ava’s accounts of oppression are chilling, Pepper’s awkwardness is endearing, and Molly’s grief is brutal, the mastermind’s far-fetched scheme and Molly and Pepper’s improbable stunts in Berlin ultimately muffle the strong voices of all three characters.
A convoluted mystery that flavors the darkness of Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity (2012) with the contrivances of Scooby Doo. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4071-6
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense.
29
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Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood; he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Jackson’s debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives. Pip and Andie are white, and Sal is of Indian descent.
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9636-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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Rachel, a 16-year-old trauma survivor, is initiated into her private school’s secret society for horror fans.
A year after surviving a violent attack, high school junior Rachel Chavez becomes the new girl at Manchester Prep on Manhattan’s affluent Upper East Side. The middle-class daughter of a faculty member, Rachel feels invisible except for her one new friend, harmless school gossip Saundra Clairmont. After a school party ends in a ghost story, a séance, and screaming, Rachel—who immersed herself in horror movies as a coping device—notices a prankster amid the chaos. Soon, she is initiated into the Mary Shelley Club, a tightknit group that requires secrecy and rule-following from its members. She joins Freddie Martinez, a film geek on scholarship; hot-tempered, Stephen King–adoring Felicity Chu; charming Thayer Turner, whose political family is compared to the Obamas; and brooding golden boy Bram Wilding. Mostly the teens just watch all sorts of horror films—classics, slasher, zombie, psychological—but membership also involves more sinister activities. Moldavsky’s tightly plotted tale weaves in dark humor, an impressive amount of horror trivia, and insightful references to Frankenstein. Readers will quickly become invested in Rachel’s story even when she’s making difficult-to-witness mistakes. The characters are notably diverse; issues of ethnicity and social class are naturally woven into the story.
An atmospheric page-turner about loving scary movies, longing to belong, and uncovering the many masks people wear. (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23010-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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