An oblique Dutch import challenges readers with three glimpses into the workings of a monumentally unhappy family. The characters are the unnamed narrator, a teenage girl; her loving but tormented older brother Axel; their sisters; and their wickedly self-centered mother. Successive, vividly realized episodes focus the narrative lens in excruciating detail on this hapless group. In the first, set in a wheatfield, Axel confronts their mother about her boyfriend, who has been sexually abusing him; in the second, the family prepares for the arrival of an unknown man curiously willed to them, a man the children hope will be a new father; in the third, the narrator carries on an imaginary conversation with Axel, now moved out, as she and her sisters attempt to establish themselves as a family in both his absence and their mother’s—she’s disappeared with a new boyfriend. Moeyaert (Hornet’s Nest, 2000, etc.) is a master of atmosphere—the reader feels the staggering heat of the wheatfield and the increase in tension as the standoff between Axel and his mother intensifies—but it is his ability to crystallize his narrator’s immediate emotional state that rings most true. The reader feels her blinding rage at her mother’s neglect, her pathetic hope that the family can be a family, her resignation as she finally gives up on her mother. The narrator and Axel agree that it’s love they don’t understand, at least as exemplified by their mother, but by the end, it is clear that on their own, the children are working toward their own independent understanding of love. To say that the writing is elliptical is an understatement, and an air of the surreal hangs over the whole, dislocating both characters and reader. Not an easy work, nor a fun one, but eerily effective and powerful. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: June 15, 2002
ISBN: 1-886910-71-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
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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