An affecting contemporary tale of self-discovery set against a richly portrayed Deep South backdrop.
A privileged youth spends a winter break on his aging grandmother’s farm in this YA novel.
It’s the holiday season on the brink of the new millennium in Manhattan, and temperamental, spoiled teenager Win Canterbury has just been informed of a major change. His parents want him to spend his private prep school’s four-day winter break with his grandmother in Mississippi. His wealthy best friend, Jules Brevard, who treats life like a “personal cruise ship of adventure,” tells Win to go hunting during his Southern vacation. After a short period of white-knuckle reservations, Win reluctantly agrees and heads to “Cottonlandia.” The ancestral, 3,000-acre cotton plantation features a crumbling main house and is home to a weathered local farmer named John Case, caretaker Gert, and Win’s decrepit grandmother, who appears gravely ill. Staying in his father’s childhood bedroom, Win experiences swift culture shock: The plantation’s accommodations are impossibly rustic, with limited electricity, no internet service, and no transportation. But this is the least of his worries. Win’s father unceremoniously arrives at the farm to announce federal charges being brought against him and that the teen’s mother has become emotionally unstable. The plantation will be Win’s new home indefinitely. After a period of denial, the truth sets in as Win, donning camouflage coveralls, must make peace with the dusty realities of Cottonlandia, his makeshift family, and a few ornery locals. Will the young, independent-minded, restless Win let the humble, backwoods country life of school, work, hunting, and dirt grow on him, or will he bolt back to the privileged urban glitz he’s accustomed to?
Key sets up this scenario expertly and sketches Cottonlandia with a gritty realism. The nearby town is populated with an endearing cast hobbled by poverty yet emboldened by Southern pride, and Win’s education percolates with the slow, persuasive simmer of the “new, strange life” that somehow just might work out. As “sentimental and impractical” as Win’s father considers the plantation, his son soon discovers a world of purpose, drive, and character-building work. This environment affords the author opportunities for descriptive brilliance, such as Win eating the gamey venison he’d shot days before that tasted “like the first time you try a lamb chop”; riding a mattress harnessed to the back of an ATV at a holiday party; and observing the local swamps at dusk “throbbing and pulsing with frogs and insects.” The tension between Win and his father is palpable, much in the same way as the teen’s resistance to settling into the slow, Southern way of life as the forgotten, bucolic cotton farm begins to blossom all around him. Key’s YA debut, Alabama Moon(2006), was released to wide acclaim, including a movie adaptation. Here, he utilizes the same seamless storytelling skills in an engrossing, resonant tale of humility, history, and the gravitas of family obligation. The author focuses on the excitement, the trepidation, and the anticipation of unknown places, new directions, and unfamiliar people. Key structures his introspective story around 87 brisk, clipped chapters, which serves to both tell a fast-paced, enjoyably uncomplicated tale and to create a simple yet memorable reading experience. Readers of Southern fiction and charmingly evocative tales of personal growth will find much to savor in this novel.
An affecting contemporary tale of self-discovery set against a richly portrayed Deep South backdrop.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2021
ISBN: 979-8486387197
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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
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