Capilano High School student Eric Connelly finds that first love can have explosive consequences.
Eric is supposed to become a Connelly Man like his father, Sen. Donovan Connelly, by following the Plan: take a summer internship in a law firm, attend Stanford, build a career in corporate law, have a fine family, and run for office. He must “LIVE UP TO HIS POTENTIAL,” “MEET EXPECTATIONS,” and never, ever, “TARNISH THE FAMILY NAME.” The problem is that “Connelly Men do not hook up with guys,” and Eric has a crush on Jordan Grant, a rich, handsome, “one-way ticket to nowhere.” With Eric and a couple of girls, Jordan forms the Suicide Pack, and the four white students embark on a series of “fixes,” supposedly to fight the corruption and hypocrisy of their town. But it’s a descent into chaos—trashing offices, shoplifting, stealing cars, making bombs, and committing murder. The third-person omniscient narrator never lets the reader forget that Eric is a Connelly Man, even as Eric is anything but, though Eric’s training does, perhaps, allow for “Redemption. (Kind of.)” Matthews’ stylized, telegraphic prose style of short words, short sentences, and frequent, short (even one-word) chapters comes in handy as the story gathers momentum for a riveting final fifth, as Eric must find a way to stop the escalating violence.
A fast-moving tale of obsession and redemption. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-233689-7
Page Count: 528
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status.
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Testing the strength of family bonds is never easy—and lies make it even harder.
Daunis is trying to balance her two communities: The Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, teen is constantly adapting, whether she is with her Anishinaabe father’s side of the family, the Firekeepers, or the Fontaines, her White mother’s wealthy relatives. She has grand plans for her future, as she wants to become a doctor, but has decided to defer her plans to go away for college because her maternal grandmother is recovering from a stroke. Daunis spends her free time playing hockey with her Firekeeper half brother, Levi, but tragedy strikes, and she discovers someone is selling a dangerous new form of meth—and the bodies are piling up. While trying to figure out who is behind this, Daunis pulls away from her family, covering up where she has been and what she has been doing. While dealing with tough topics like rape, drugs, racism, and death, this book balances the darkness with Ojibwe cultural texture and well-crafted characters. Daunis is a three-dimensional, realistically imperfect girl trying her best to handle everything happening around her. The first-person narration reveals her internal monologue, allowing readers to learn what’s going on in her head as she encounters anti-Indian bias and deals with grief.
A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-76656-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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Many teen novels touch on similar themes, but few do it so memorably.
11
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Two struggling teens develop an unlikely relationship in a moving exploration of grief, suicide and young love.
Violet, a writer and member of the popular crowd, has withdrawn from her friends and from school activities since her sister died in a car accident nine months earlier. Finch, known to his classmates as "Theodore Freak," is famously impulsive and eccentric. Following their meeting in the school bell tower, Finch makes it his mission to re-engage Violet with the world, partially through a school project that sends them to offbeat Indiana landmarks and partially through simple persistence. (Violet and Finch live, fortunately for all involved, in the sort of romantic universe where his throwing rocks at her window in the middle of the night comes off more charming than stalker-esque.) The teens alternate narration chapter by chapter, each in a unique and well-realized voice. Finch's self-destructive streak and suicidal impulses are never far from the surface, and the chapters he narrates are interspersed with facts about suicide methods and quotations from Virginia Woolf and poet Cesare Pavese. When the story inevitably turns tragic, a cast of carefully drawn side characters brings to life both the pain of loss and the possibility of moving forward, though some notes of hope are more believable than others.
Many teen novels touch on similar themes, but few do it so memorably. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75588-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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