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James, Brian
3 Reviews
(4)
YA
Because Sabrina experiences the world differently from other people, she's diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. There she meets Alec, the only person who understands her, and they decide to resist treatment. It's difficult to follow Sabrina's disordered, paranoiac narration, with its nonsensical yet vivid imagery, but the novel offers a harrowing glimpse into mental illness.
Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith
(2)
YA
This revisioning of Wuthering Heights is set in contemporary San Francisco. Through alternating first-person narration, readers follow popular Catherine toward her tragic fate, while Heathcliff-stand-in Henry spirals from sensitive, lovelorn boy to violent, self-destructive brute. Themes of wealth and class, jealousy and alienation are also explored. James succeeds at creating a modern-day story of doomed love with convincing depth of emotion.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2009
(4)
YA
Ninth-grader Lacie Johnson faces the challenges of adolescence--changing friendships, emergent sexuality, first love--under the shadow of her father's recent suicide. Her unpolished first-person narration echoes the turmoil felt by her family in their daily struggle toward a false normalcy. Though many of the supporting characters are one-dimensional, author James develops a unique protagonist in Lacie.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz
3 reviews
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