Dark doings and mildly steamy desire in the dorms.
Two years down the road from the traumatic events of Liar’s Beach (2023), a Harvard freshman finds a second corpse—this time in his girlfriend’s bed.
Cotugno kits out her whodunit with the requisite red herrings, enigmatic clues, sudden twists, and even an Agatha Christie–style denouement that wraps things up. But her sequel’s focus and drive center on the emotionally messy romantic triangle that develops as Linden finds himself caught between a rekindled relationship with former high school classmate Greer and a previously platonic one with close childhood friend Holiday. It’s Greer’s roommate who winds up in her bed, wearing her clothes, and dead of an apparent overdose while, as in the opener, Holiday is the story’s observant, analytical Poirot—to the point that she’s the one who actually goes ahead and sets up the climactic scene after making a few telling discoveries while Linden is stewing at home, suspended in the wake of being framed for a rash of student pilferage. Along with marveling anew that Linden, the still thoroughly self-centered and clueless narrator, has any love life at all, readers will be less likely to be swept up in the details of the crime than the tale’s whirl of intelligent banter, alcohol-fueled parties, hormonal heat, and pretty post-adolescent confusion. Main characters present white.
Dark doings and mildly steamy desire in the dorms. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593433324
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
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
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
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