Behind Closed Doors

March 1, 2017
Two British teens struggle to stay off the streets.Fifteen-year-old Josie's mum is a hoarder. Their house is filled to bursting, and because of this, Josie never has friends over, she showers at the local swimming pool, and they can barely make ends meet. When she comes home one day to discover her mother has been arrested for failure to pay taxes, Josie's already-chaotic world is turned upside down. Things only become more unsettled when that same night her classmate Tasha comes pounding on her door. Tasha's mother's boyfriend has become increasingly predatory, and she's fled to the only address she can remember: Josie's. They make an odd pair, but their mutual anxiety to stay off social service's radar ties them together. Josie's and Tasha's alternating first-person narrations often feel authentically teenage, with a few notable exceptions. The teens' texting habits, including full punctuation and signed with initials, won't be familiar to most American teenagers, and Tasha's desire to keep her vlog (a concept she has to explain to her friends), published directly to the internet, private from any possible viewers feels very unlikely. White Josie's biracial (Japanese/white) boyfriend is repeatedly given the descriptor of "almond-shaped eyes," while white Tasha frequently refers to her black best friend-turned-maybe-crush with possessive diminutives, as in "my little Dom"; neither habit is interrogated. A book with its heart in the right place even if it fumbles the execution along the way. (Fiction. 12-16)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-This work explores the complicated relationships between two teen girls and their families. Fifteen-year-old Josie Tate struggles to juggle school, a job, and her mother's growing hoarding tendencies. Josie uses the money from her job to pay for food and clothing because her mother's illness has left her unemployed. Things seem to get better for Josie when she meets Jordan, an Olympic hopeful. However, Jordan's rich family makes her even more aware of the strangeness of her living situation. By contrast, Tasha Brown is a teen whose popular facade hides her growing fear of her mother's boyfriend. She avoids interactions with him by partying with her best friend, Dom, and managing several overnight stays with friends. The two protagonists are brought together unexpectedly when Josie's mother is thrown into jail for tax evasion and Tasha runs out of places to stay. Josie realizes she will need help to figure out how to save her mother. Tasha has to decide if she will give her mother another chance. The young women must learn to work together to fix the problems the adults in their lives have created. Child abuse, social services, mental illness, and homelessness are thoroughly examined in the process. Josie and Tasha start out as frenemies and then become friends, and the roles they play shift over the course of the narrative, which helps with the pacing of the story. VERDICT A strong choice for realistic fiction shelves.-Desiree Thomas, Worthington Library, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 Josie and Tasha, two almost-16-year-old classmates running in totally different cliques (or in Josie's case, no clique at all), have more in common than they think. Josie's house has always been a nightmare maze of the junk her mother stacks floor to ceiling. Tasha's home has just started feeling unsafe, as creepy looks from her mother's younger boyfriend have multiplied. When Tasha ends up on Josie's doorstep, looking for a place to stay, new people and perspectives force them to consider alternative futures for themselves. Halahmy's (Hidden, 2016) novel is a compelling read for the high stakes and heavy topics it addresses alone. The protagonists' struggle to reconcile their love for people who keep disappointing them, as well as the idea that the one place they thought they should be safe isn't a haven rings true. Sometimes the dialogue feels awkward and forced, making the interactions read like an after-school special. Still, this quick read is one that will stay with readers long after they finish the last page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)