Despite the title’s plea, there’s not much worth close examination here.
A swimming prodigy sees vague premonitions of death as she mourns her father.
After her father’s death, Tegan struggles: She lacks motivation to apply to college or swim, a sport at which she excels. Her best friend has moved and she feels isolated at home, where her mother’s new marriage disgusts her. She sees those around her as objects, especially the local homeless population, whom she calls “randoms.” Tegan finds names on a cereal box and her windowsill that lead her to witness a suicide, and soon other names of people about to die appear to her. Tegan’s attempts to save them lead her to renewed connections with her mother and swim coach, romance with a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, and some facile closure about her father. Tegan’s absent best friend, implied black and the sole significant character of color, is portrayed as stereotypically sassy; Tegan cozies up to a popular white girl with a racist history. Descriptions of diverse background characters reinforce the white default and too often fall into tropes. A sexualized joke by Tegan’s male coach and her wearing of her father’s underwear feel off. The people Tegan saves remain two-dimensional vehicles for her own pity and navel-gazing. A potentially thrilling final twist pulls its punch in favor of a milquetoast metaphor, and Tegan concludes her story with a series of shallow truisms about embracing life.
Despite the title’s plea, there’s not much worth close examination here. (Magical realism. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6274-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale.
A reissue of the 2016 novel published as Consider.
Alexandra Lucas and her boyfriend, Dominick, are about to start their senior year of high school when 500 vertexes—each one a doorway-shaped “hole into the fabric of the universe”—appear across the world, accompanied by holographic messages communicating news of Earth’s impending doom. The only escape is a one-way trip through the portals to a parallel future Earth. As people leave through the vertexes and the extinction event draws nearer, the world becomes increasingly unfamiliar. A lot has changed in the past several years, including expectations of mental health depictions in young adult literature; Alex’s struggle with anxiety and reliance on Ativan, which she calls her “little white savior” while initially discounting therapy as an intervention, make for a trite after-school special–level treatment of a complex situation; a short stint of effective therapy does finally occur but is so limited in duration that it contributes to the oversimplification of the topic. Alex also has unresolved issues with her Gulf War veteran father (who possibly grapples with PTSD). The slow pace of the plot as it depicts a crumbling society, along with stilted writing and insubstantial secondary characterization, limits the appeal of such a small-scale, personal story. Characters are minimally described and largely racially ambiguous; Alex has golden skin and curly brown hair.
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-72826-839-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Phantom of the Opera served as inspiration, but this wouldn’t last on Broadway.
Stephanie and her family move into an old mansion rumored to have been put under a curse after a turn-of-the-20th-century rich boy meddled with an Egyptian mummy.
After her young sister complains about strange events, high school student Stephanie befriends Lucas, a geeky, good-looking boy, and meets the other members of SPOoKy, the Scientific Paranormal Organization of Kentucky: Charlotte, Wes, and Patrick. Stephanie learns the history of her new home from Lucas, who attracts her romantic attention, but the usually levelheaded girl is soon drawn to Erik, the handsome phantom who first comes to her in dreams. The story is told in chapters narrated by Stephanie, Lucas, and Zedok, whose identity is initially a source of confusion to Stephanie. Zedok appears wearing different masks, “personified slivers” of his soul, representing states of mind such as Wrath, Madness, and Valor. Meanwhile, until gifted singer Stephanie came along and he could write songs for her, Erik’s dreams were thwarted; he wanted to be a composer but his family expected him to become a doctor. In the gothic horror tradition, Erik’s full background and connection with Zedok are slowly revealed. Romantic dream sequences are lush and swoon-y, but the long, drawn-out battle to end the curse, aided by a celebrity clairvoyant, is tedious, and the constant introduction of Erik’s different personae is confusing. Most characters default to White; Patrick is Black.
The Phantom of the Opera served as inspiration, but this wouldn’t last on Broadway. (Horror. 13-16)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11604-3
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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