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Desir, C.
5 Reviews
(3)
YA
When a new girl--bold, confident Chloe Donnelly--arrives in small-town Iowa, smart but isolated Chloe Sanders (soon known as "Other Chloe") feels increasingly inferior. After Chloe Donnelly introduces a secret-swapping game, the increasingly high stakes have Other Chloe fighting hard to protect her own secrets and those of her crush. Desir generates plenty of tension and suspense in this psychological thriller.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl
(4)
YA
When a drunk-driving accident forces Natalie to admit she has a problem, she struggles between her attendance at AA (and attraction to a recovering alcoholic who's twice her age) and her old self-destructive habits. Natalie's voice is raw and real, but the novel skims over Natalie's interest in boxing, missing an opportunity to explore it as a path to a more positive future.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl
(4)
YA
Kyle is a timid music lover who works at the school radio station, Hailey a scrappy rock musician who is slowly going blind. In alternating chapters spanning years, this mismatched pair works through lists of their biggest fears while tiptoeing around a relationship. Lively characterization helps to balance the pair's slow-burning romantic tension, but a last-minute resolution feels hasty and thin.
Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald
(4)
YA
Vulnerable and withdrawn seventeen-year-old Amelia Gannon meets intense and possessive foster kid Michael Brooks, who draws Amelia out of her depression and into a destructive, obsessive relationship. Desir writes about subjects such as addiction, self-harm, and suicide with reckless abandon, forcing readers to experience the raw emotion alongside her characters. Gritty and bleak; for mature audiences only.
Reviewer: Lana Barnes
(4)
YA
Ben's new romance with free-spirited Ani begins to fall apart after Ani is brutally raped at a party. After the rape, Ani's behavior becomes alarmingly opaque, and Ben struggles to help someone who has become a stranger to him. This look at rape's destructive effects leaves an (often disturbing) impression but doesn't rise above problem-novel status.
Reviewer: Zoey Peresman
5 reviews
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