Sweet but never sappy; heartbreaking but always hopeful.
Family isn’t limited to those connected by blood; sometimes it includes the people who are dearest to you.
Hazel leaves her mother and the bustle of London to live with her father, whom she’s just met, in a large house by the ocean in Queensland, Australia. Her father is genuinely happy to have the chance to get to know her, and although her first week at her new school isn’t without a few snags, Hazel’s classmates Maddie and Hunter welcome her with warmth and friendliness. She also befriends her neighbor, gay artist Red. The three help ease Hazel’s loneliness, but she longs for the day she can return to London and her mum. Red struggles with the theme of his big art project—family—for his is fractured. His mother tries hard to keep the peace, and his father works away from home most of the time. His fraternal twin brother, Luca, is withdrawn and angry; he hasn’t healed from the death of his best friend the year before. Themes of family, hope, and love permeate the novel as the three teens try to move forward with their lives, never forgetting those who are most important. Third-person narration is shared among Hazel, Red, and Luca and is interspersed with letters of childhood memories that Hazel writes to her mother. All characters are assumed white.
Sweet but never sappy; heartbreaking but always hopeful. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30560-4
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 19, 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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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