A powerful thriller that will surprise you at every turn.
A sensitive treatment of high school shootings and their impact on families of both perpetrators and victims.
Sixteen-year-old Skye Gilchrist is returning to her hometown three years after a deadly shooting. Her brother was one of the perpetrators, killed by police during the incident. In the subsequent fallout, her father abandoned the family, she and her mother left town to live with her grandmother, and her mother spiraled into depression. Moving home to live with her aunt and attend high school with classmates who were affected by her brother’s actions is hard, especially since her former best friend and crush, Jesse Mandal, lost his brother, Jamil, in the shooting and isn’t quite sure how to deal with Skye’s reappearance. Shunned by peers and anonymously bullied online and in cruel pranks, Skye’s concerns are dismissed by the grown-ups around her as attention-seeking. Jesse, a Bangladeshi-American Muslim boy, has his own challenges as he also tries to avoid school bullies and overperforms in an attempt to comfort his parents and compensate for Jamil’s death. Armstrong paints a refreshingly authentic and touching portrait of Jesse and his family as they deal with their grief. Alternating first-person accounts by Jesse and Skye build a compelling plot and well-developed characters. Skye and her family are white.
A powerful thriller that will surprise you at every turn. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-55036-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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