Deeply moving and thoroughly engrossing.
A queer teenager toggles between eras in this time-fluid love story.
Eighteen-year-old Eddie is new to New York City. He’s there tending to Cookie, his 99-year-old great-aunt who lives in Greenwich Village. Her home is an homage to the past: Photos from her youth adorn the walls, as well as portraits of glamorous movie stars, like Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead. Eddie’s responsibilities include taking photos with Cookie’s vintage Polaroid camera of her favorite haunts, picking up opera cakes and alstroemerias, and having a glass of sherry with Cookie at precisely 4:00 p.m. All of this is manageable. What’s not manageable is Eddie’s anxiety. As he explores the city, he meets Theo, the bakery apprentice who makes said opera cakes. But Eddie is unable to move forward with his feelings of attraction. He also meets Francis, a boy from the 1920s. As Eddie slips between then and now, he’s able to fully be himself with Francis; their love story is sweet, hot, and revelatory. But is it real? Is Eddie’s seeming ability to travel through time actually something else? This story is a love letter to New York, an exploration of identity, and the passing down of a legacy of queer stories from one generation to another. Eddie’s visions are left open for readers’ interpretation, but his search for where he belongs is very clear, resplendent in how vividly Shaw conveys it. Most characters are cued white.
Deeply moving and thoroughly engrossing. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781250327109
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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