An evocative, skillful novel about the price of escape, and a very promising debut.
In Seskis’ debut novel, a married woman abandons her old suburban life to start a new one in the city.
Attorney Emily Coleman lives a fairly ordinary life in suburban Chorlton, Manchester, England, with her husband, Ben, and her son, Charlie. She has loving parents and a close but difficult twin sister, Caroline (“Emily seemed embarrassed to be liked and yet everyone loved her, and Caroline was desperate to be loved and nobody did.”). After she learns that she’s pregnant again, she’s happy (“sickeningly so,” in her own estimation), but then she abruptly and mysteriously leaves her old life behind and moves into a seedy, ramshackle group home in North London. She takes a new name, Cat Brown, and slowly, hesitantly begins forging an entirely new existence. Her self-confidence wavers in the book’s early chapters; “It's all too much,” she often thinks, and she wants to “give up, not be here, melt into nothingness.” She soon befriends a female croupier in the West End named Angel and gradually builds a new life, including working at an advertising agency, drinking and taking drugs, and befriending a handsome, caring man named Simon. Seskis skillfully balances chapters showing the progress of Emily’s new life with others delving into characters’ pasts—from Emily’s father, Andrew, a womanizing salesman who’s “well aware of his reputation as the office sleaze-bag,” to Caroline, to Emily herself. The author reveals Emily’s motivations for leaving her family with great patience and narrative skill. At one point, Ben learns that Emily has a twin sister and wonders “how can there be two Emilies in the world?”; Seskis sets about answering that question with excellent dramatic pacing, dialogue and prose (“It was four o’clock and the sky was high and hungry, eating up the last of the winter light”), culminating in poignant concluding chapters which examine Emily’s decisions without sentimentality.
An evocative, skillful novel about the price of escape, and a very promising debut.Pub Date: April 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0957544321
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Kirk Parolles
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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