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 heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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