An endearing examination of family, friendship, and personal growth in the wake of mental health struggles.
A prospective university student searches for himself during a seaworthy gap year.
Eighteen-year-old gay Italian Australian Marco Di Mario got the highest score of any student in the state of Victoria in his Year Twelve exams and was accepted to Melbourne University to study biomedicine. But when he lands in the hospital after suffering panic attacks due to anxiety over heading off to uni, his parents force him to take a year off. Nonna Sofia, the family matriarch, arranges for him to join his estranged uncle Renzo on the Mediterranean cruise ship where he works. On board the Ocean Melody, Marco hopes to find answers about himself, his anxiety, and the reason for his uncle’s abandonment of the family decades earlier. With support from CeCe Casupang, his Filipina Australian lifelong best friend, Marco decides to break out of his comfort zone and begin solving his problems by trying to “get a few things wrong” for once in his life. This plan includes getting into a situationship with “Hot Surfer Dude” Hunter, a charming dancer from California. A cast of characters with realistic human failures propels the narrative through mostly witty dialogue. The cruise ship world is diverse in nationality, race, and sexuality, and even minor walk-on characters are described in ways that add to the story’s inclusive nature, although their identities aren’t developed in substantive ways.
An endearing examination of family, friendship, and personal growth in the wake of mental health struggles. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9798890030740
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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