Another splendid, complex tour de force from the Carnegie-winning author of The Haunting and The Tricksters. Jonny Dart, 19, questing for the elusive memory of the details of his sister Janine's fatal fall five years ago, is in the habit of succumbing to rage and "looks like trouble"—but is "more trouble to [himself] than to anyone else." Recovering from a binge, he falls in with old Sophie, who has Alzheimer's disease. Mistaking him for someone from her past, she takes him to her chaotic house, where he finds himself drawn into a new role: creating order, caring for Sophie, and ultimately making longer-term arrangements for her care. Meanwhile, he has located Bonny, Janine's close friend and the other witness to her death. Though their reacquaintance begins tentatively and is interrupted by Jonny's overviolent attempt to embrace her—and the power she symbolizes for him—her alternate memories help him to relinquish his unearned guilt for his part in Janine's death. Mahy's narrative is rich in images, analogies, parallels, and allusions, a poetic feast for the mind and heart. Jenny finds that memories—like Sophie's marvelous tragic-comic lapses with their cozy, inappropriate conventions and endless repetitions—can be "wild stories, always in the process of being revised, updated, or having different endings written onto them." Thus he can evolve a new version of his relationship with his family (perhaps Janine was neither the favorite nor the most talented), with Bonny (who reveres Jonny's power as much as he reveres hers), even with the evil bully Nev—and give up the ghosts of memory, give up dancing under the danger sign at the cliff's top, and be reborn: ordinary, under control, even lucky.
Pub Date: April 1, 1988
ISBN: 000712337X
Page Count: 292
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1988
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
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