A spare, tightly written exploration of the effects of incarceration on families.
A teenage boy struggles with shame, isolation, and the unraveling of his family after his father is imprisoned for arson in Thompson’s YA novel.
Miles’ life starts to unravel the day he sees his dad’s workplace, Lundy’s Barbecue, ablaze on the local news. Things only worsen when it’s revealed that the fire wasn’t a tragic accident—the owner paid Miles’ dad $5,000 to set it in a desperate bid for insurance money. But their plan goes awry when a firefighter is horrifically injured on the scene during the building’s collapse. Despite pleading guilty to the crime, Miles’ father is given the maximum 10-year sentence, more than double what his lawyer predicted. For Miles, any hope that things will blow over soon is shattered. The first thing the verdict affects is his schoolwork. He’s distracted in class, turning in half-done assignments or nothing at all, and his dipping grades may jeopardize his upcoming basketball tryouts. Unable to maintain focus, he’s not doing much better on the court. Broken into short, punchy chapters, the novel uses simple language to take on complicated topics—incarceration, guilt, emotional isolation—with clarity and heart. Miles’ voice is raw and real, unpolished in a way that rings true. Like grief, shame has no script, and the story captures that emotional uncertainty with precision. The writing never overexplains or dips into sentimentality; Thompson trusts the reader to feel the weight between the lines as Miles endures depressing visits at the county jail (“I want to see Dad. But I don’t want to go inside”), conducts internet searches on life in prison, and suffers the ache of watching a parent fall from grace. And yet, there are moments of levity and hope, such as making the basketball team (having friends who remain by his side, Miles slowly learns that he doesn’t have to carry everything alone). Despite some writing that’s a little too on the nose, this is a powerful, well-paced story.
A spare, tightly written exploration of the effects of incarceration on families.Pub Date: May 29, 2024
ISBN: 9798989065790
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Finding Forward Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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