Olivia Tate, newly graduated from high school, returns to her late father's house in New Hampshire to complete another rite of passage in this slight novel. The structure of the book is a 70-mile bicycle ride over the same route her father took as a test of will. Seeking to repeat her father's feat, Livvy goes back in memory to the previous summer when she and her father met for the first time since he abandoned the baby Olivia and her mother. He was a proudly isolationist New Englander, conservative in his views and contemptuous of her professor mother. He wrote mysteries, which Olivia has made a point never to read. Her parents are opposites; Fleischman never hints at the attraction which produced Olivia. Instead, he describes a summer of sniping during which each hesitantly reaches out to the other to find a tentative rapprochement. As Olivia ends her ride, the resolution is confirmed: she has found a way to meld both heritages into her life. The difference in the parents are so complete as to be schematic; Olivia's resolution of them ties up the ends too tidily. Olivia does have a wryly self-conscious voice which makes her entertaining. Her father, given to too many sarcastic proclamations, is less so. Other characters are not well limned; the reader, with the task of figuring out which summer is which, may not care. There is suspense as to whether Olivia will finish her bicycle trip, and a lovely turn of phrase which sticks in the memory. These are the book's virtues, but it's as tidy as a sampler and about as interesting.
Pub Date: April 1, 1986
ISBN: 0060218665
Page Count: 117
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986
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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