A good concept with smart characterization that can’t sustain its page count.
Two strangers take part in a psychological experiment on intimacy in the era of social media.
Hildy and Paul are total strangers who both happen to take part in a local university study for the princely sum of $40. The study centers on the titular 36 questions, a series of (real-life) inquiries that are designed to engineer affection between two partners. Circumstances prevent the pair from finishing the assignment in one sitting, but over the course of several days, the two straight, white teens engage in an online back and forth that eventually completes the questionnaire. The questions chip away at Paul’s and Hildy’s reservations, and the two eventually reveal home lives fraught with emotional abandonment and dishonesty. The concept of the 36 questions is a clever enough line to hang the burgeoning romance upon, but the novel is far too long. There’s a lot of repetition here, and while Hildy and Paul feel real enough to fall for each other and engage readers, they lack the full three dimensions this book’s length needs to work. The story also suffers from late reveals that are telegraphed and hinted at and drawn out so extensively that any emotional effect these reveals have is long gone. The secondary characters are well-conceived, Hildy’s parents and friends thematically and structurally underlining the primary romantic argument for honesty and emotional availability.
A good concept with smart characterization that can’t sustain its page count. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7624-6318-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Several yards short of a touchdown.
A transgender boy starting over at a new school falls hard for a popular cheerleader with a reputation to protect in this debut.
On the first day of senior year, transgender boy Pony locks eyes with cisgender cheerleader Georgia. They both have pasts they want to leave behind. No one at Hillcrest High knows that Pony is transgender, and he intends to keep it that way. Georgia’s last boyfriend shook her trust in boys, and now she’s determined to forget him. As mutual attraction draws them together, Pony and Georgia must decide what they are willing to risk for a relationship. Pony’s best friend, Max, who is also transgender, disapproves of Pony’s choice to live stealth; this disagreement leads to serious conflict in their relationship. Meanwhile, Georgia and Pony behave as if Pony’s trans identity was a secret he was lying to her about rather than private information for him to share of his own volition. The characters only arrive at a hopeful resolution after Pony pays high physical and emotional prices. McSmith places repeated emphasis on the born-in-the-wrong-body narrative when the characters discuss trans identities. Whiteness is situated as the norm, and all main characters are white.
Several yards short of a touchdown. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294317-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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