This familiar-feeling if slightly overlong debut should resonate with fans of Morgan Matson, John Green, and Rainbow Rowell.
While both are volunteering at a Miami Beach retirement home, an aspiring astrophysicist and a young filmmaker befriend a famous octogenarian who’s presumed dead.
Ever since Linny’s 18-year-old older sister, Grace, disappeared five months earlier, leaving nothing but a note to take care of her pet turtle, Linny has kept a journal about missing people who’ve reappeared after weeks, months, and years. Mixed-race Linny’s Nigerian mother and “Viking” father fearfully keep a close watch on their remaining daughter and try to keep her focused on their goals of Princeton and med school. The summer before senior year, Linny is performing community service at a retirement community, where she spies 83-year-old Álvaro Herrera, the Cuban-born author of Midnight in Miami, a bestselling book adapted into a cult-movie classic. No one had seen or heard of Herrera in three years, and Linny believes if she discovers why he returned, Grace may as well. Cal Tech–bound science wiz Sebastian finds out that Álvaro is his long-lost father and immediately flies down to Miami to volunteer at the home in hopes of meeting his dad. Linny and Sebastian meet, adventure amiably around Miami on errands for Álvaro, and, predictably, fall in love. The author crowds the dual narration with occasionally distracting excerpts from Linny’s journal, a work-in-progress screenplay about Grace, and quotes from Sebastian’s favorite physics book.
This familiar-feeling if slightly overlong debut should resonate with fans of Morgan Matson, John Green, and Rainbow Rowell. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-256396-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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
SEEN & HEARD
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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