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Featuring 285 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA Books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXIII, NO. 12 | 15 JUNE 2020 REVIEWS Interview with Enter to Win a set of ADIB PENGUIN’S KHORRAM, PRIDE NOVELS! author of Darius the Great back cover Is Not Okay, p.140 with penguin critically acclaimed lgbtq+ reads! 9780142425763; $10.99 9780142422939; $10.99 9780803741072; $17.99 “An empowering, timely “A narrative H“An empowering, timely story with the power to experience readers won’t story with the power to help readers.” soon forget.” help readers.” —Kirkus Reviews —Kirkus Reviews —Kirkus Reviews, starred review A RAINBOW LIST SELECTION WINNER OF THE STONEWALL A RAINBOW LIST SELECTION BOOK AWARD WINNER OF THE PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER OF THE PRINTZ MEDAL 9780147511478; $9.99 9780425287200; $22.99 9780525517511; $8.99 H“Enlightening, inspiring, “Read to remember, “A realistic tale of coming and moving.” remember to fight, fight to terms and coming- —Kirkus Reviews, starred review together.” of-age… with a touch of —Kirkus Reviews magic and humor” A RAINBOW LIST SELECTION —Kirkus Reviews Featuring 285 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s,and YA Books. KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 12 | 15 JUNE 2020 REVIEWS THE PRIDEISSUE Books that explore the LGBTQ+ experience Interviews with Meryl Wilsner, Meredith Talusan, Lexie Bean, MariNaomi, L.C. Rosen, and more from the editor’s desk: Our Books, Ourselves Chairman HERBERT SIMON BY TOM BEER President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas # As a teenager, I stumbled across a paperback copy of A Boy’s Own Story Chief Executive Officer on a bookstore shelf. Edmund White’s 1982 novel, based loosely on his MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] coming-of-age, was already on its way to becoming a gay classic—but I Editor-in-Chief didn’t know it at the time. I was simply drawn by the gauzy cover image TOM BEER [email protected] of a handsome young man seen in profile. Just purchasing that book felt Vice President of Marketing SARAH KALINA illicit, and furtively reading it back home was revelatory: Here was an [email protected] author writing about the powerful same-sex desires that I, too, felt. I was Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU still several years away from coming out, but A Boy’s Own Story opened a [email protected] Fiction Editor door and changed me. LAURIE MUCHNICK A book can do that. [email protected] Tom Beer Young Readers’ Editor In the early 1980s, a novel like A Boy’s Own Story felt like a message in VICKY SMITH [email protected] a bottle—rare and miraculous, a communication from another world. Today, LGBTQ+ people Young Readers’ Editor have many more books, and more diverse representations, available to us. And yet I’m certain LAURA SIMEON [email protected] that when a queer youth encounters that book—the one that feels addressed just to them—the Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE experience is every bit as radically transformative. [email protected] Over the years, other books shaped my sensibility, informed my politics, became personal Vice President of Kirkus Indie KAREN SCHECHNER touchstones—works by James Baldwin, Alan Hollinghurst, David Wojnarowicz, Audre Lorde, [email protected] Senior Indie Editor Dorothy Allison. A little more than a decade after I picked up A Boy’s DAVID RAPP Own Story, I went to work at Out magazine, where editor Sarah Pet- [email protected] Indie Editor tit trusted me enough to write and then edit book reviews (among MYRA FORSBERG [email protected] other less glamorous duties). Some of the unforgettable books that Associate Manager of Indie passed across my desk in those years: Scott Heim’s , KATERINA PAPPAS Mysterious Skin [email protected] Jacqueline Woodson’s From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, Sarah Schul- Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER man’s Rat Bohemia, Hilton Als’ The Women, David Sedaris’ Naked. I [email protected] vividly remember editing the rave review of Sarah Waters’ Mysteries Editor Tipping THOMAS LEITCH and sensing that this novel—an inspired 19th-century les- the Velvet Contributing Editor bian picaresque—was likely a future classic. GREGORY McNAMEE Copy Editor The current moment offers even more far-reaching books about BETSY JUDKINS the LGBTQ+ experience for adults and young people. In Kirkus’ Designer ALEX HEAD second annual Pride Issue, we survey the landscape and speak with Director of Kirkus Editorial some of the authors who are creating it. Meryl Wilsner discusses LAUREN BAILEY [email protected] giving a happily-ever-after ending to the lesbian protagonists of their romance novel, Something Production Editor HEATHER RODINO To Talk About (Berkley, May 26). Meredith Talusan tells us about her memoir, Fairest (Viking, May [email protected] 26), and the journey of self-discovery that took her from gay man to trans woman. Lexie Bean Website and Software Developer PERCY PEREZ talks about breaking all the rules to write their middle-grade novel, The Ship We Built (Dial, May [email protected] Advertising Director 26), the story of a 10-year-old trans boy enduring abuse and seeking hope. L.C. Rosen dishes on MONIQUE STENSRUD the summer-camp love story every queer kid ever wanted in his YA novel Camp (Little, Brown, [email protected] Advertising Associate May 26). And our editors recommend more LGBTQ+ reads in fiction, nonfiction, children’s, TATIANA ARNOLD [email protected] and young adult. Graphic Designer There is almost certainly a queer young person who will read one of these books and find LIANA WALKER [email protected] their world expanded. Just as significantly, there are straight readers of all ages who will be simi- Controller MICHELLE GONZALES larly enriched. Here’s to the LGBTQ+ writers telling their stories, exercising their imaginations, [email protected] and changing the world—one book at a time. for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover design by opportunities Melissa Taylor 2 | 15 june 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 The Kirkus Star is awarded REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 INTERVIEW: MERYL WILSNER ........................................................ 14 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: ZAINA ARAFAT ............................................................ 22 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ............................................................................................. 38 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY .........................................................49 ROMANCE ............................................................................................51 nonfiction adult young INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................53 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................53 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 54 INTERVIEW: DANIEL LAVERY ......................................................... 60 INTERVIEW: MEREDITH TALUSAN ..................................................66 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 95 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 95 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................96 INTERVIEW: LEXIE BEAN ...............................................................102 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................ 132 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................138 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 142 REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 142 EDITOR’S NOTE.................................................................................144 INTERVIEW: L.C. ROSEN ............................................................... 148 INTERVIEW: MARINAOMI ..............................................................152 In this richly textured, #ownvoices Lipan Darcie Little Badger indie Apache title by , illus- INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................159 trated by Rovina Cai, a teen girl uses her para - REVIEWS ............................................................................................159 normal powers to right a terrible wrong. Read EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 160 the review on p. 150. INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ........................................................177 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as SEEN & HEARD ................................................................................