Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
Crown, 2019.

Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood are the onscreen names of high school seniors Josie and Delia for their public access TV show where they present schlocky horror movies from the 1970s.

They make a good team. Delia knows and loves these horror movies because they are all that’s she has of her dad who left her and her mum when she was eight, and hasn’t been heard from since. Josie, however, has always wanted to work in TV, so when she is offered an internship at the Food Network, she is torn between trying to make Midnite Matinee a success or moving on. When Delia discovers that legendary horror show producer Jack Devine is at Shivercon it seems like a great opportunity to move their show to the next level.

The young women alternate narration. Delia is the emotional heart of the novel, desperately trying to find stability in her life, and Josie, witty and erudite, is ambitious and wants to bust open her life. Their friendship is intense but it seems to me that Delia does a lot more giving and forgiving than Josie.

Delia has depression, which is helped by medication – hooray for making this a depiction of the positive benefits of antidepressants. Additionally, Midnite Matinee with her best friend Josie gives her something to hold on to. Delia has also just discovered that her father lives close to where Shivercon is, so she could take the opportunity to see him and ask the question that has nagged her for so long – why did he leave?

Delia and Josie are spunky, foolhardy, brave (or oblivious as only a teenager could be) and get themselves into some wacky situations which are funny in the book but would be scary in real life and made me (as an adult and a parent) quite uncomfortable. However, the scenes of the setting up and taping of the show are hilarious and absolutely worth the price of admission..

This is a sweet and melancholy story about endings and beginnings, about a pivotal time of life (or at least, what feels like a pivotal time of life at the time) and two close friends going in different directions.

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Nancy Paulsen, February 2019

A heart-wrenching and deeply moving story about impoverished street kids in India. When sisters Viji and Rukku’s alcoholic father moves from beating their mother to hitting them, they run away from their village home to a big city. Viji is 11 and though Rukku is older, she has an intellectual disability so Viji makes the decisions.

With little money and without knowing anybody, Viji tries to find work and shelter, and they encounter threatening adults and kids as well as kind ones, eventually finding familial companionship with two boys, Arul and Muthu, sharing their tent home on an abandoned bridge. While Rukku finds some independence making necklaces, Viji picks up the boys’ trade of rag-picking but it’s a precarious life on the street particularly for girls and particularly with the rainy season threatening.

The reader is aware from the beginning that Viji and Rukku will be separated and this knowledge looms over the narrative, as Viji recalls their journey as though recounting it to Rukku, in the same way that she tells her nightly stories about two princesses.

Venkatraman (A Time to Dance, 2014)  shines a light on the appalling conditions that thousands of Indian children live in, through this short and elegantly written novel. Viji conveys the menace that some adults present but the author keeps this appropriate for a middle grade reader and is not explicit on the genuine and appalling threats that face the street kids. An author’s note gives more details.

Reviewed from an ARC.

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer
Dial/Dutton, February 2019

I have enjoyed Meg Wolitzer’s adult and YA novels very much, and found her a delightful and thoughtful raconteur when I saw her interviewed recently. I have been less keen on Holly Goldberg Sloan’s novels, they are still pretty good. It’s an interesting pairing and this interview talks about their friendship and their process.

Bett and Avery are both 12 and they both have single gay dads but little else in common. Bett lives in Venice, California, loves skateboarding, surfing outdoors and animals, and is not a great follower of rules. Her father is African American and her birth mother is Brazilian. Avery lives in New York, is vegetarian, loves science and reading and has “excessive worries”. Her dad is “Jewish Caucasian” and she knows nothing about her mother. So when their dads meet, fall in love, and decide to go to China for a motorcycling vacation, they want their daughters to go to camp together and get to know each other and the girls HATE the idea.  

As we find out through this novel told, mostly, in emails between the two girls some things work out according to plan and some things don’t. The two girls have funny and credible voices but though Bett feels authentic, Avery feels like a little like a caricature of a neurotic New York Jewish intellectual (though maybe not something middle schoolers will likely be aware of unless they watch Woody Allen movies).

Unfortunately the epistolary format means there is somewhat superficial character development and the authors load up on plot instead of emotional depth. The novel skims over a lot of ground very quickly and frequently leaves credibility behind on its way as it takes some surprising and often farfetched turns. But at its core, as a picture of the development of an unlikely friendship between two very different and initially reluctant girls, it works charmingly.

Reviewed from an ARC.

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith
Delacorte, 2019

Putting aside the absurd premise of this novel (British Hugo was due to go on an Amtrak trip across America with his girlfriend Margaret Campbell, but when she dumps him he has to find another person of the same name to accompany him as the tickets are in her name) this is a YA romance as light and fluffy as a marshmallow.

Hugo is a biracial (white mother and black father) sextuplet and he and his siblings have been doing everything together forever and are even set to go to university together, so Hugo sees the train ride as an opportunity to strike out on his own. The warm love and support of his siblings, along with their amusing YA novel banter, grounds Hugo as well as allowing him the freedom to explore his own dreams.

Margaret “Mae” Campbell got into USC but not into the film program she wanted. She knows she’s good at film making and is passionate about it but, wouldn’t you know it, it takes her sort of boyfriend to point out her style is “impersonal”. Of course, once she falls in love with Hugo, the movie she decides to make about the stories of all the different people on the train gets the emotional lift it apparently needed.

Aside from a mildly uncomfortable racist incident in Chicago, there’s no intended edge in here whatsover. Though personally I was irritated by the patronizing attitude of the boys to Mae, I don’t think the author was deliberately meaning this to be an issue.

The author gives us a sly wink when she has Mae’s Nana talk about old romantic movies: “It’s not supposed to reflect reality…. But sometimes you just want to pretend that the world is a better place than it actually is. That loves triumphs over everything.” And that sums this book up in a nutshell and if sometimes a reader just wants to find characters who are smart, funny, attractive and able to fall in love in just three days (and sometimes I am that reader), then this is a good place to be.

Reviewed from an ARC.

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
Delacorte, 2019.

After the wonderful One of Us is Lying (2017) I had high expectations for Ms McManus’s new murder mystery. And while it is very good it’s much less nuanced than her previous novel – still highly recommended but not go-out-of-your way to read.

Twins Ellery and Ezra Corcoran have to spend the first four months of their senior year living in Echo Ridge, Vermont with their Nana, while their mother, Sadie, is in rehab. Twenty years ago, Sadie’s twin sister disappeared and has never been found, five years ago, homecoming queen Lacey was found murdered. This crime was never solved but the town has decided that Lacey’s ex-boyfriend, Declan Kelly was responsible. As Ellery and Ezra settle into school, there is a new wave of threats against the three candidates for homecoming queen and then one of them disappears. Is this all connected?

The story is told from the perspective of Ellery, a true-crime aficionado, and Declan’s brother, Malcolm – two fully fleshed out and interestingly quirky characters. However, it would have been nice if Ellery had had a bit more agency, and that’s a bit of an issue with all the female characters. The twins, Malcolm, and new friend Korean American Mia do some investigating of their own which may or may not help the police and now Malcolm is getting the same kind of suspicious looks as his brother did five years ago.

The author does a great job with a pretty straightforward murder mystery plot and adds in a couple of interesting layers. Echo Ridge is wealthy and almost wholly white, and Mia and her sister Daisy have felt the pressure of being outside that. There is a Latinx police officer too and the twins, who don’t know who their father is, are biracial – is it just coincidence that all these non-majority culture people are tangled up in this mystery? The novel also takes a sharp look at the role of the media is generating suspicions and fanning the flames of the threat story.

There are plenty of suspects, red herrings, and twists before an unexpected resolution is reached. This is a fast-paced and tightly plotted novel that will grip YA mystery fans.