A fascinating journey for fun and introspection—just like the inspirational tarot.
See what your cards reveal....
Before parting for different colleges, four friends spend their last summer together on a road trip through California, with a deck of tarot cards deciding their specific route. At their first stop, they discover that the unique deck is actually the last work of a prestigious artist. He hid the four missing cards, and the deck’s owner can only locate them by deciphering clues. The friends—brash, anxious Amelia, who inherited the deck from her beloved grandmother; Amelia’s best friend, Chase, the analytical planner; Logan, Chase’s athletic boyfriend; Cleo, the maybe-nonbinary artist—alter their trip in order to complete this elaborate scavenger hunt. The story follows the symbolic journey of the tarot’s major arcana, one of setting out and discovering truths, facing obstacles, and eventually arriving at deeper understanding. Sergi has folded the concept of the tarot into the structure of the book itself in a creative and entertaining way, as readers follow a choose-your-own-adventure style of page turns. Although some destinations are predetermined, each decision shapes the journey and the ultimate outcome. For those less familiar with the tarot, the book helpfully includes descriptions of card meanings as well as various perspectives on how to read them. Amelia is Jewish, Chase seems to be White by default, multiracial Logan is Trinidadian, and Cleo is cued as biracial (Japanese/White).
A fascinating journey for fun and introspection—just like the inspirational tarot. (reading guide, personality profiles) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7624-7141-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Running Press Teens
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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