Tag:

Coming Of Age

Review

Anyone But Her

by Henrietta Thornton

The love surrounding a beloved neighborhood institution shines through in Swanson’s latest, in which a 1979 Denver record-store owning mom is shot dead in a robbery, her forlorn young daughter, Suzanne, left behind. But Suzanne’s hapless dad has the perfect solution. It’s all figured out! His old girlfriend, Peggy, is moving in. Peggy seems much too eager for this arrangement. She’s also far more motherly toward Suzanne’s devastated little brother, Chris, than Suzanne would like, while nasty toward Suzanne herself. But Suzanne’s mom used to call her daughter “my little seer,” and indeed, after some time, she gets visits from her mom, hearing again her “warm, round voice–like the sun speaking.” When we fast forward in alternating chapters to 2004, adult Suzanne is moving back to Denver from California with her husband, disgruntled teenage daughter, and nine-year-old son. Trying to settle in, she opens a new business in her mom’s old shop, but sinister things start cropping up–a girl is missing in town, and elements of the case are strangely familiar. Then there’s the rat left on the family’s doorstep. What it all means leads this protagonist on a frightening and gripping path to the truth about what happened in 1979, a tale that is enriched with details on the music of the time and the feeling of enduring love. For fans of T. Jefferson Parker’s A Thousand Steps, which is steeped in the same emotions, and all who love a solid mystery

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Review

You Shouldn’t Be Here

by Henrietta Thornton

Like Thoman’s also excellent I’ll Stop the World, this will be a great crossunder, meaning that it’s written for adults but will also find young adult appeal. Also like the previous book, it strongly features the supernatural affecting teenage characters in an authentically written relationship. Madelyn Zhao has moved to East Henderson, PA, to try to find out what happened to her disappeared cousin who worked for a local real-estate developer, an aggressive character who basically runs the town. At her job as choir teacher at a high school, she meets and begins to fall for Alex, the dishy Spanish teacher. We also meet East Henderson teenagers Bas and Angie, BFFs who are now, at Angie’s insistence, ghosthunters. Living with her devastated dad since her mom took off, Angie hears singing in the shower, only nobody’s there. How Madelyn and the teens interact, and the sleuthing they each undertake to get to the bottom of goings on in this sinister-tinged town, are both touching and gripping.

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Review

Under the Storm

by Brian Kenney

It’s winter when a fire destroys a farmhouse in rural Sweden, burning it to the ground. With the parents out for the night, the only victim was the twenty-something daughter of the house. But she wasn’t killed by the fire; her autopsy reveals that she was murdered by blows to the head. Who would have wanted to kill Lovisa, who was loved by everyone? While the murderer is quickly identified, tried, and jailed, this story continues to expand in multiple directions, exploring the impact of a murder on a community, the families, even Edvard, the perpetrator. It’s also a coming-of-age novel as we follow Edvard’s nephew, who grows up in the shadow of his uncle’s acts, worrying that he too has a propensity for violence. But at its heart, this is the tale of Vidar Jörgensson, a young police officer who was one of the first officers at the fire and helped to solve it, but then spent years ruminating over the case. This is no less than a brilliant crime novel. Carlsson combines his deep knowledge of criminal motivations and trauma—he has a doctorate in criminology—with rich, compelling storytelling. Fans of the TV series Broadchurch and the works of Ann Cleeves will enjoy the deep community focus. Sure to be one of the big books of early 2024.

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Review

I’ll Stop the World

by Henrietta Thornton

It might be a while since you read a book with teenage protagonists. It’s time. This coming-of-age story has characters who are adolescents to the core, spending their too-fast days on intense friendships, pulling away from parents, and fearing that their high school woes are their destiny. Small-town Warren High School in 2023 is the setting, and the story centers on Justin Warren, whose name is no coincidence: the school is named after his grandparents, who were killed in a fire at the school years before, his mother an infant in the car outside. Things haven’t gone well for Justin. He’s not going to college and he’s in love with his best friend, Alyssa Vizcaino (while they’re seatmates in every class because their last names “function as the alphabetical equivalent of an arranged marriage,” she’s not interested). Then there’s a bizarre twist: an accident throws Justin over a bridge and into…1985. He’s not born yet, his grandparents are still alive, and he still has a chance to change his 2023 lot in life. He meets fellow teen Rose Yin (he’s her pen pal who’s come for a fun visit!), and the two set out to solve a mystery that could mean the world to Justin. Romance is thrown in of course, including a sweet same-sex relationship; combined with the mystery and the tricky logistics of time traveling back to your own town and family in the past, this is one to recommend to book groups and all who like an emotional saga.

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Review

The Storyteller’s Death

by Henrietta Thornton

Fraught connections between different worlds hold together this coming-of-age tale: connections between Puerto Rican families in the United States and their homeland; between the past and the present; between the real world and one made of stories. As the book opens, its shy protagonist, Isla Larsen Sanchez, is visiting her mother’s native Puerto Rico. Back in New Jersey, “everyone [looks] so colorless, like the underbelly of a fish,” but at least there she can do her own thing. The island, however, is overflowing with color but also with cheek-pinching aunts who expect proper behavior from a young lady with “not one drop of blood…that is not European.” Over the years, as she spends every summer in Puerto Rico, Isla comes to realize that her oh-so-pure blood may have given her…well, she’s not so sure it’s a gift. She sees visions of tales the cuentistas, storytelling women in her family, have told her—but only after their deaths. When one story involves a murder, and Isla finds that she can be physically hurt by weapons in the visions, readers find themselves dropped into a combination of magical realism, terror, and mystery, all wrapped in a shroud of family secrets and dubious honor. This rich story about stories can work as a crossunder, meaning it can be enjoyed by young adults as well as adult readers; Toni Morrison fans will particularly enjoy the otherworld-tinged drama

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Review

After We Were Stolen

by Henrietta Thornton

Avery lives outside in a tent while her family sleeps inside. Over the years, she’s learned to start her own fires; sometimes it doesn’t work and she’s freezing and hungry, but things aren’t much better for her nine siblings inside. Their parents, cult leaders preparing the family for when they’re the only ones left on Earth, emphasize toughness over all else. The children get their hopes up when the parents announce a buddy system, but it turns out that your buddy is the one who will be punished if you leave, so escape seems unthinkable. Avery finds a way out, though, accompanied by her little brother Cole, only to discover that they’re famous in the outside world as victims of years-ago child abductions. What happened the night the pair escaped and how they will navigate notoriety and society’s expectations are mysteries that will keep readers rapt. Also engrossing are the overwhelming emotions involved with both staying and going, the realization that just because the biggest problem is over doesn’t mean everything is rosy, and the ways tormented people treat one another even when survival is no longer at stake. Avery has grit and attitude to spare and will stay with readers long after the last page.

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Review

Fake

by Brian Kenney

A wonderful descent into the New York art world led by a hero you won’t soon forget. Twenty-something Emma Caan is a highly skilled artist who excels at recreating nineteenth-century paintings. She works for a studio that supplies clients, ranging from high-flying collectors to leading museums, with reproductions to protect their investment. Lest there is any confusion, each work is signed by Emma and indicates it’s a copy. Despite her expertise, the salary is lousy and she can barely afford life in New York City. Until she meets Leonard Sobetsky, Russian billionaire, renowned art collector, and one of her clients. Before she can say do svidaniya to her old life, Sobetsky sets her up as the assistant director of New York’s most important gallery, moves her into a glam SoHo apartment, and continues to feed her paintings to reproduce. Within weeks she’s doing vodka shots on Sobetsky’s private plane, heading to Art Basel Hong Kong. But since every chapter begins with a brief transcript of Emma being interviewed by the FBI, even the least attentive reader will know that something is up. The question is, how bad will it be? And while Emma is really just a copyist—true forgers take much more care, sourcing period canvas, for starters—why quibble when you’re having so much fun? A little chick lit, a little Devil Wears Prada, and a little Barbara Shapiro, Fake should find broad appeal.

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Review

A Thousand Steps

by Henrietta Thornton

Matt Anthony, a high-schooler in 1960s San Francisco, has the weight of the world on his skinny shoulders. His conservative father abandoned the family and writes only to rail about the “queers and communists” who have taken over the city. Matt supports his family with a punishing paper route while living off fish he catches and foraging restaurant leftovers, all because his mother claims to have a curiously long-lasting flu but is actually using their grocery and rent money on drugs. Worst of all, right after Matt sees a teen girl’s body washed up on the beach, his sister Jasmine goes missing. Matt’s mother doesn’t take Jasmine’s disappearance seriously for days and the police are little help, leaving Matt to investigate the seedy human infrastructure of the city’s drug scene, which wears a veneer of peace and love but underneath is cut-throat capitalist. Matt’s story is akin to an ancient epic that sees the hero tested and battered (his lengthy skirmish with a giant fish—two week’s worth of food for a hungry boy—is terrifying). But ultimately he triumphs as he fights for what’s right. The prolific Parker has 27 other novels to back this up, most recently Then She Vanished (2020); readers who like a modern epic should turn to Michael Hughes’s Country, a version of The Iliad set in present-day Northern Ireland.

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