A life-affirming story of friendship, love, and faith.
A life-altering incident sets two ex–best friends on a collision course.
Best friends and next-door neighbors Hannah and Emory haven’t spoken since the fight when they both said things they can’t share and can’t take back. In alternating chapters, Emory focuses all her energies on theater and her boyfriend, Luke, while Hannah, the daughter of a pastor who is also the principal of her Christian high school, questions her faith as the result of the things Emory said to her that day. Their paths collide unexpectedly when Hannah finds Luke unresponsive at the wheel of his car late one night. Though he miraculously survives his injuries, he finds that he cannot move forward in the aftermath of the accident and turns to Hannah to confide the truth behind his near-death experience. When his story reaches a wider audience, things spiral beyond their control and the rift between Hannah and Emory threatens to grow even wider. Though Luke’s spiritual experience brings him and Hannah closer together and threatens to drive him and Emory apart, these characters are clearheaded and sympathetic, and the narrative avoids typecasting them or straying into melodrama. Emory and Luke share a notably sex-positive relationship, and Hannah experiences a forbidden attraction that neither ends in scandal nor distracts from the central plot. Hannah, Emory, and Luke are white.
A life-affirming story of friendship, love, and faith. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4847-6821-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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