Starred review from June 13, 2016
Arnold (Mosquitoland) again showcases a memorable cast of outsiders carving out space for themselves. Bruno Victor “Vic” Benucci III, a 16-year-old Jersey kid born with a rare condition that leaves him unable to use most of his facial muscles, is reeling from his father’s death two years earlier. After his mother’s new boyfriend proposes to her, Vic bolts from the house with his father’s ashes. Vic’s destiny is changed when he meets 17-year-old Madeline “Mad” Falco, who is part of a gang of semihomeless kids who vow to help Vic decipher his father’s final note, which dictates various places to spread his ashes. Told through Vic and Mad’s alternating narratives, interspersed with police interviews centered around the murder of Mad’s abusive uncle, the story focuses on the unbreakable bonds of these forgotten, mistreated kids—who include two brothers born in the Congo and a brilliant, sharp-tongued 11-year-old—as well as Vic’s enduring loyalty to his father’s memory. Arnold writes with a Hinton-esque depth and rawness, building Mad and Vic’s stories with practiced patience. Ages 14–up. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.
July 1, 2016
In Hackensack, New Jersey, a teen grieving the death of his father flees home, urn containing his dad's ashes in hand, and stumbles upon the best friends of his life. Sixteen-year-old Vic Bennuci's late father left him with an appreciation for asymmetry, which both informs his love of abstract art and helps him cope with the often cruel ways the world reacts to his face: the white boy has Moebius syndrome and can't smile or blink. Readers are introduced to him and this gripping novel's other narrator--quiet, tough, blonde, white Mad, a lover of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, whose home life is a nightmare of abuse--as they're being separately interviewed by the police about their friend Baz, who is accused of murder. Baz and his brother, Nzuzi, are Congolese refugees who lived in foster care in the United States following the deaths of the rest of their family, and they, along with foulmouthed white, 11-year-old Coco, round out this intelligent and funny group. Vic and Mad are beautifully realized characters. The others are not as fully developed but are deeply sympathetic nonetheless. Their coalescence into an informal found family is both natural and believable. This tale of kids dealing with horrific situations is at times almost fantastical in its romanticism and is realized through the employ of spot-on pacing and lovely wordsmithing. Sophisticated teen readers will love this. (Fiction. 14-18)
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July 1, 2016
Gr 8 Up-Victor has an urn with his father's ashes and a set of instructions for scattering them. Madeline has a scar and a troubled past. When the two collide, or "bump," as Victor puts it, Victor joins the Kids of Appetite, a ragtag group that Madeline belongs to. As the gang helps Victor complete his dad's last mission, he begins to fall for Madeline. Meanwhile, one of the KoA comes under suspicion for murder, and Madeline and Victor are swept up in the investigation. Set against the vivid backdrop of Hackensack, NJ, this literary novel will satisfy teens looking for a quirky read. However, sometimes the quirk goes into overdrive and the details overwhelm the plot, which can feel thin in comparison. The KoA are a motley crew, and each member is fairly well drawn, with the exception of one African character, who communicates solely through finger snaps, which is a troubling detail. The writing is lush and lovely, but those seeking a fast-paced or compelling plot should look elsewhere. VERDICT An additional purchase for YA library collections.-Erinn Black Salge, Saint Peter's Prep, Jersey City, NJ
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Following his acclaimed debut, Mosquitoland (2015), Arnold offers a heartfelt tale that entwines ferocity with quirk, loss with first love, and beauty with asymmetry. Told almost exclusively through flashbacks, the book begins inside the Hackensack Police Department, where teens Vic and Madeline ( Mad ) are being individually questioned about a murder. The story, however, begins eight days before, when Vic is taken in by the ragtag Kids of Appetite (KOA), who help Vic in his quest to scatter his beloved father's ashes. Vicwho has Moebius syndromegains a sense of belonging within this diverse and unusual group, but it is Mad who truly captures his attention. Arnold alternates between Vic's and Mad's perspectives as they recall the days leading to their interrogation. Bloodthirsty readers drawn to the murder element, be warned. This novel is for heart-thinkers. Darkness and complexity swirl beneath the surface, as each KOA member copes with personal traumas. At times it feels like Arnold has too many balls in the air, but philosophical teens drawn to themes of belonging will revel in his latest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
February 27, 2017
When grieving teenager Vic flees his home to disperse his father’s ashes, he finds solace with a motley crew of semihomeless teens led by Baz, a Congolese refugee who is being accused of a New Jersey murder, and falls in love with Mad, an intrepid bookworm. Stage actor Strole captures Mad’s biting wit, and Crouch nails Vic’s wistful optimism. (Crouch also gamely tries his best with a sequence that likely worked well in print but is almost unbearably awkward for the listener, in which Vic recites his mantra one hundred times in rapid succession. Points to Crouch for his attempts to vary the delivery.) Where the audiobook falls short is in failing to utilize the talents of Anderson, an experienced audiobook performer who is woefully overlooked here as Baz, mostly serving as a scene-setter at the start of each chapter while Strole and Crouch coarsely attempt to read Baz’s dialogue in their respective sections of the story. A Viking hardcover. Ages 14–up.
January 1, 2017
Vic, a Moebius syndromesufferer grieving his deceased father, and orphan Mad, whose abusive uncle was murdered, are being interrogated by the police. Earlier, Mad's crew--Congolese-refugee brothers Baz and Zuz and sassy eleven-year-old Coco--helped Vic scatter Dad's ashes. Arnold's prose is sharp and observant, his pacing restrained, revealing characters' backstories gradually while setting up a murder investigation that keeps readers guessing.
(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
September 1, 2016
In a Hackensack police interrogation room, sixteen-year-old Bruno Victor Benucci III is being interviewed as a witness to a murder. We learn, via Vic's first-person narration including flashbacks, about his rare neurological disorder, Moebius syndrome, which causes facial paralysis; about his grief over his deceased father; and about his heart-thinker personality, which makes his inability to conventionally express emotions feel more devastating. In a separate interrogation room is second narrator Madeline (Mad) Falco, a headstrong, almost-eighteen-year-old orphan whose abusive uncle was the murder victim. Mad runs with a crew that includes Congolese-refugee brothers Baz, a fatherly twenty-seven-year-old who turned himself in for the murder, and twenty-year-old Zuz, who is selectively mute; and eleven-year-old Coco, a connoisseur of sass, rap, and faux cussing ( What the motherfrakking frak? ). Early in Vic's tale, the quartet welcomes him in with open arms after he runs away from his mother and her despised new fiance with his father's urn, looking to scatter Dad's ashes per his instructions -- a mission that lends structure to much of his story. Arnold's (Mosquitoland, rev. 3/15) prose is sharp and observant, his pacing restrained, revealing each character's backstory gradually while also setting up a murder investigation that keeps readers guessing until the second it doesn't. Vic constantly refers to life revelations from his father, including the idea of simultaneous extreme opposites -- a concept that, given all the laugh-cries to be had in his emotionally well-wrought novel, Arnold motherfrakking nails. katrina hedeen
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)