by Natalie Lund ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019
Too much dead calm, not nearly enough storm.
Three outcast teens come together when a tornado stirs up literal and figurative ghosts in their small Midwestern town.
In 1961, a tornado touched down at a drive-in movie in Mercer, Illinois, killing almost all of the town’s teenage population. Half a century later, that loss still haunts Mercer’s residents, and when another tornado strikes the same location, the current batch of teens are especially rattled. There have always been rumors that those killed in the old tragedy remain in Mercer as Storm Spirits, and three misfit high school students think they might be starting to receive the spirits’ messages. Joshua, who feels invisible at school due to his weight and sexuality, teams up with Brenna, whose contentious relationships with her family and a toxic ex-boyfriend compound the loneliness she feels as a Latina in a predominantly white community, and Callie, who has slid into an eating disorder as her mother’s terminal illness progresses. The three share alternating point-of-view narration interspersed with a Greek chorus of the Storm Spirits’ collective voices. Joshua, Brenna, and Callie are all sympathetic characters, but their slow-burn story is smothered under the weight of ponderous, self-serious narration. An incest survivor is deeply othered. All three teens’ “Very Special Issues” are too tidily swept away when their drawn-out conclusion finally arrives. What starts as a delicate ghost story ultimately collapses under its own slow weight.
Too much dead calm, not nearly enough storm. (Paranormal. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51800-6
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
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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PERSPECTIVES
by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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