An engaging, multilayered story that finely balances action with introspection and the real with the mystical.
Van Allen’s YA novel tells the tale of troubled siblings who meet a very unusual funeral home director.
It’s summertimeand 16-year-old Callie Valentine must look after her younger brother, Thomas, and sister, Jess. Callie effectively leads the trio, sourcing food, navigating the dangerous neighborhood around their apartment complex, and shielding them all from the worst of their neglectful mother, who has a drinking problem. To survive a tough life, Callie must be just as tough. When things are at their worst, she and her siblings cross paths with Victor Delamorte, a local mortician who’s an odd character. With his support, the kids’ lives begin to change for the better. The funeral home is full of forbidden rooms which Callie can’t help but explore. It turns out that Delamorte, who’s very ill, has a bizarre plan for after he dies, which the skeptical Callie and Thomas can’t bring themselves to believe; however, due to their affection for him, they decide to help him execute the plan. Elements of the mysterious and the magical are threaded through the narrative. Callie occasionally experiences glimpses of her dead father, and, from the corner of her eye, other shadowy figures. A mysterious beautician at the funeral home raises more questions. As Callie learns to trust others, she also becomes determined to unravel the funeral home’s mysteries. The tension builds throughout the final act, pulling the reader along at a brisk pace. Callie is an engaging, well-developed narrator whose worries and descriptions of what she and her siblings have endured enrich the narrative without slowing it down: “There was a time I believed I had superpowers. Not like flying or mind-reading….No, my special talents were more common abilities, such as running and hiding.” Intriguingly, in the novel’s first half, her descriptive powers emphasize the grimness of the world she inhabits: holes in the wall are likened to open wounds, for instance; later, this gruesomeness is gone, illustrating her emotional transformation, like the titular phoenix, when in a safe, stable environment.
An engaging, multilayered story that finely balances action with introspection and the real with the mystical.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798218591939
Page Count: 393
Publisher: Terra Verde Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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