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OLDER FICTION
Allen-Agostini, Lisa

Home Home

154 pp. | Delacorte | May, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-9848-9358-1 $17.99 | Library ISBN 978-1-9848-9359-8 $20.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-9848-9360-4
(2) YA After a suicide attempt, Kayla, a fourteen-year-old brown-skinned girl from Trinidad, is packed off to ­Canada by her strict single mother to recover in the loving care of Kayla's free-spirited aunt. Throughout the summer, she receives treatment for anxiety and depression, adjusts to the twin novelties of suburban Edmonton and Aunty Jillian's lesbian relationship (which is interracial), and contemplates the differences between life in Canada and life back in Trinidad. Her first romance and the troubled mother-daughter relationship drive the plot as she realizes what "home" really means and in which country her future lies. Kayla's first-person narrative, which includes interspersed diary entries as well as reflections on serious issues such as homophobia and teenage pregnancy, is by turns moving, insightful, and wry, providing an authentic window into the perceptions of a teen suffering from depression. Her self-absorption, while reasonable, is glossed over; thus, the book misses an opportunity to explore an ­oft-misunderstood aspect of mental illness as well as the strain it can have on ­relationships. The author's attempts to broaden perspectives on LGBTQIA+ people and mentally ill people give the novel more depth than some of Kayla's references to Trinidadians ("real Trinis"; "Trinidadians made jokes about everything. We laughed at life"). This and the sporadic intrusion of an adult-sounding voice are minor flaws in an otherwise thoughtful and well-paced story filled with realistic and complex family ­dynamics.
Reviewer: Summer Edward | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

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