No Perfect Places

March 15, 2023
Twin siblings Olly and Alex Brucke face personal demons when their incarcerated father passes away. The summer before their senior year of high school, Olly and Alex's well-known tech CEO father dies from a heart attack while still in prison. But before he dies, he tells Olly not to tell his sister about their secret half brother. Tyler Dell, who is two years older than the twins, sent a letter that Olly intercepted and kept from his sister. A year later, Alex is mired in an abusive relationship with a rich-boy drug dealer, and while Olly is coping, he's still tangled in his father's lies. The narrative, which alternates between the two siblings, tackles big themes, mostly with a light hand. The twins must wrestle with the injustice of the prison system while also confronting their father's guilt and their family's White privilege. They also have to reconcile loving their father with the fact that he committed fraud, evaded taxes, and embezzled funds and was emotionally abusive toward their mother. Olly's gender identity and sexuality are included seamlessly, not the focus of the story but making a genuine impact. However, the intimate details of Olly and his boyfriend Khalid Zaid's sex life shift the tone and feel like they were dropped in from another book. This intense, dramatic novel that explores complicated relationships, coping with adversity, and the fallout of keeping secrets will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven stories. An emotional story of familial ties. (map) (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 13, 2023
Via immersive prose, Salvatore (And They Lived...) renders two teens’ fraught summer in Lake George, N.Y., for an atmospheric and intricate telling of grief, family secrets, and siblinghood. What used to be a relatively comfortable life for white teenage twins Alex and Olly Brucke has been upended by new financial stressors ever since their father was imprisoned for embezzlement 18 months ago. Things grow more complicated when Olly, who is nonbinary, receives a letter containing a paternity test meant for Dad from a teenager named Tyler Dell, who Olly learns is the twins’ half brother. Olly’s parents urge them to drop the matter and keep it secret from Alex, but Olly instead strikes up a clandestine email friendship with Tyler. After their father dies in prison, however, the narrative jumps to the following summer, in which grief-stricken Alex escapes her sorrows through illicit substances, and Olly spends time with their boyfriend, until the siblings’ lives are turned upside down once again when Tyler suddenly arrives in Lake George from Pennsylvania. Alex and Olly’s distinct alternating perspectives add depth and intimacy, cultivating a kaleidoscopic narrative that shines brightest when focused on the twins’ complex—and clearly loving—relationship. Ages 12–up.

April 15, 2023
Grades 9-12 When Alex and Olly Brucke's father passes away in prison, the twins deal with grief in their own separate ways. Alex turns to alcohol and a toxic relationship, and Olly seeks refuge in a film project about his family and in his supportive boyfriend. But Olly is also keeping their father's last secret--they have a half brother, Tyler. After Olly starts corresponding with Tyler, he delays telling Alex because she is already having so much difficulty coping. When Tyler unexpectedly shows up and the secret threatens to be revealed at any moment, the growing rift between the twins may become unbridgeable. Salvatore's (And They Lived . . ., 2022) contemporary YA deals sensitively with heavy themes of grief, addiction, and mental health. Both the main characters and those whom Alex meets at a support group for teens with incarcerated parents represent people from a range of backgrounds with different identities. This book will appeal to lovers of realistic contemporary fiction and will connect with any reader who has lost someone.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2023

Gr 10 Up-Twins Olly and Alex Brucke's lives were turned upside down when their father was arrested on white-collar criminal charges. Serving time in federal prison, their dad has convinced Alex of his innocence, but not Olly (who unlike Alex uses he/they pronouns). Then, their dad dies of a heart attack in prison. What Olly knows, and fears Alex can't handle knowing, is that their dad fathered a secret child before their birth, and that their half-brother (Tyler) has been emailing Olly. Paralyzed by grief, Alex sleepwalks through her senior year of high school and gives up her aspirations of becoming a chef, spiraling into drug and alcohol use and a relationship with an abusive drug dealer. Meanwhile, Tyler shows up unannounced for a summer job working with Olly at the Lonely Bear Resort in Lake George, NY, forcing Olly to keep Tyler's identity concealed from Alex while simultaneously filming a documentary about their family. Something of a mash-up between The Parent Trap and I'll Give You the Sun, this novel will appeal to readers who enjoy issue-heavy stories, although the narrative strains under the weight of many intense conflicts. Drug use, including an overdose death, and explicit sexual situations make this better suited for upper high school readers. Olly, Alex, and Tyler are white; Olly's boyfriend Khal is Lebanese; and Javy, a Black and Latinx friend of Alex's from a support group, open's Alex's eyes to the racial inequities of the incarceration system. VERDICT A secondary purchase.-Elizabeth Giles

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.