A genuinely shocking reveal isn’t enough to save this book.
A grief-stricken Chicago teen finds solace in a meet-cute romance.
After his best friend, Daniel, passes away, Eric finds his life completely uprooted. Instead of attending his first year of college, he fills his days working to avoid his grief, first at a catering company, then in the box office of a prestigious theater. Through frequent flashbacks, Eric’s crush on Daniel plays out alongside their school trip to Japan, where he met the handsome Haru. The two spontaneously wandered together, attending a Star Festival commemorating forbidden lovers. Eric was devastated when he lost Haru’s phone number. Back in the present day, after his sister, Jasmine, announces that she’s leaving for Amsterdam, Eric spirals further. His only solace is Haru’s magical reappearance. As Eric spends time with Haru, he slowly regains his interest in life and filming the world around him. The novel unfortunately requires an immense amount of suspension of disbelief from readers. While the film references and the themes of family and love are intriguing, Haru’s presence detracts from the overarching exploration of grief, and the romance is meandering and difficult to believe in, although it does offer an intriguing commentary on the meet-cute trope. Fortunately, the major plot twist manages to be completely surprising without feeling random, and it brings Eric’s character arc full circle. Eric is Vietnamese American; Daniel is Colombian and white, and Haru is Japanese.
A genuinely shocking reveal isn’t enough to save this book. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781250762061
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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