A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences. The scenes showcasing his emotional growth are too brief and, despite foreshadowing, the climax falls flat because he still gets incredible personal access to people he’s hurt. Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development. He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. It also rings true that some characters buckle, worst off at the story’s end, while others find themselves and may make it.Ī teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas. The ostensible focus on perfection is a coping mechanism against families that are absent, cold and brutally silent, so the consequences-anorexia, drugs, booze, rape, delusion, deception-all ring true. However, the less-sharp tone works here, because these characters are more depressed than dissociated. The four first-person narrations are set in different type and have mildly different styles, but the free verse lacks Hopkins’ trademark sharp, searing brittleness. Cara seems faultless at everything from cheerleading to grades, but she’s falling in love with a girl. Andre takes dance lessons in secret, funding them with money that his wealthy, status-conscious parents give him for fashionable sweaters. Kendra does pageants but wants to model, so she schedules plastic surgery and stops eating.
Trying to excel at baseball and get into Stanford, Sean takes steroids and spirals into rage and rape. In a Reno suburb, expectations take heavy tolls. While not razor-edged like her previous work, Hopkins’ portrait of four 12th-graders who are expected to be perfect will nonetheless keep teens up all night reading.
0 kommentar(er)
