Come for the cute boy, stay for the apocalypse, beware the potential triggers.
A lurid tale of running toward—not from—a cult.
Guilt-stricken over her little brother’s accidental death, 17-year-old Ruby Jane Gilbraith is depressed and lonely, with a nearly comatose mother and (unbearably) pretentious poseur friends. When the otherworldly and childlike Fox offers her a water bottle and potential inner peace, Ruby follows him to the Institute. In this bleak commune/compound, the allegedly millennia-old leader, Zosimon, aka “Daddy,” preaches “elutriation” and exhorts the Boundless family to prepare for battle against the “toxicant” masses. Ruby, now “Heracleitus,” recognizes it as a cult but succumbs anyway. Once a doubting “sublimate,” Ruby experiences a traumatic montage of physical and psychological abuse until she is a zealot, unable to tell if she is a brainwashed follower or a fearful but conscious and conscientious criminal. An Australian romance/mystery writer, Wilkinson keeps to the former genre’s typical girl-redeems-boy trope but swerves into violent thriller/misery-lit territory to produce a grueling, unsettling read combining the sensationalism of satanic-panic public-service announcements with a first-love romance, a journey through grief, and repetitive, incoherent New Age/corporate-buzzword sermons. The setting and secondary characters are often vague, but Ruby’s transformations and suffering are depicted with a painful, unflinching focus and clarity. There is no author’s note or list of resources for readers who may find themselves stirred to action by any of the many issues raised by the book.
Come for the cute boy, stay for the apocalypse, beware the potential triggers. (Thriller/romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63079-100-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Switch/Capstone
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 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 heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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