Enjoyable enough but predictable and lacking in depth.
A Black high school senior on Long Island falls for her archnemesis.
Despite her mom and best friends insisting she should relax and enjoy the summer, Rochelle Coleman is determined to get her first job in order to round out her college application. She’s obsessed with attending the same Ivy League school as her ma and late dad. Rochelle is willing to do anything to get in—even rebuffing her childhood friend, Afro-Latine Amira Rodriguez, whose social butterfly personality feels too distracting. When Rochelle lands a job at Horizon Cinema, the local Black-owned theater, she’s surprised to learn that Amira not only works there but will be her boss. Rochelle’s prickly, competitive personality causes her to clash with her new coworkers and inadvertently hurt Amira’s feelings. But when a series of mishaps lead to the revelation that the Horizon is in financial trouble, the teen crew comes together to save the theater and find the culprit behind the pranks. All the while, Rochelle is trying to understand her growing feelings for Amira. The story contains several popular tropes, including an opposites-attract romance and a small-town business rescue, but it’s lacking in nuance and rich character development. The process of solving the mystery isn’t suspenseful and the guilty party’s identity feels obvious. The novel’s diverse cast of primary and secondary characters is both welcome and refreshing, however.
Enjoyable enough but predictable and lacking in depth. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780063359949
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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
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
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