An enjoyable read with enough emotional turmoil and sweet romantic moments to satisfy the YA crowd.
First impressions can be deceiving, as Barnes (Olivia Twisted, 2013, etc.) reveals in her new YA novel.
Sixteen-year-old Alexis Dubois is serving a two-month sentence…at SmartMart. She’s pretty, athletic and part of the popular crowd at high school. Her summer plans consist of volunteering at a kids’ baseball camp and spending time with her friends. She never imagined putting in long hours at SmartMart, the local big-box store (which bears a close resemblance in name and reputation to Walmart). Unfortunately for Lex, she’s caught stealing from the store, and working there is the only way to avoid charges. Lex is mortified by her co-workers, the same people she once mocked on YouTube. But it doesn’t take long for her to realize that there’s more to these people of SmartMart than she first thought. Sure, the shoppers are still weird and creepy. But Lex befriends her co-workers and learns they all have stories buried not far underneath the surface, including the oh-so-handsome manager, Noah. Things are looking up for Lex until she discovers Noah is a pariah at her high school and the archnemesis of her best friend’s boyfriend. She can’t possibly hang out with them both, but she can’t fight her attraction for Noah. Barnes introduces a likable cast of characters in a light and frothy addition to the YA genre. The formula is relatively predictable: girl meets boy and must overcome disapproval and life challenges to make the romance succeed. Yet Barnes’ tongue-in-cheek observations on the wacky world of child beauty pageants and the bizarre customer base at SmartMart are particularly amusing in a modern society that has spawned Honey Boo Boo and Walmart Supercenters. Other portions of the book, such as Lex dealing with her grandmother’s gradual and painful slide into Alzheimer’s disease, contain poignant moments that offset the lightness. Teen readers in particular should be able to relate to Lex and her star-crossed romance, family conflict and struggles with the future.
An enjoyable read with enough emotional turmoil and sweet romantic moments to satisfy the YA crowd.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1622665211
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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