The Sharp Time

Starred review from October 3, 2011
In an evocative first novel, O’Connell introduces an injured teen, whose sharp-edged grief and loneliness are deeply felt. After her single mother’s death, 18-year-old Sandinista Jones cuts off communication with friends and concerned adults, so she has no one to turn to when she’s targeted by an abusive teacher. On impulse, she stops going to school and takes a job at Pale Circus, a vintage clothing store that becomes a welcome escape (“Opening the door of the Pale Circus is like falling into a morning dream of Oz-bright Technicolor: you walk up any old flight of stairs, open a random closet door and find a dance hall in full swing”). Yet Sandinista’s violent urges to seek revenge against her teacher grow stronger each day. O’Connell shows exceptional skill in building tension and creating atmosphere, particularly that of the neighborhood where Sandinista works. Minor characters—Sandinista’s co-worker, her boss, neighboring monks and shopkeepers (many of whom carry burdens of their own)—add color, depth, and comic relief. Their vulnerabilities and compassion have a strong impact on the heroine as she cautiously reaches out for support. Ages 14–up.

October 1, 2011
Palpable grief plus irreverent humor equal one extraordinary debut novel. After algebra teacher Mrs. Bennett inappropriately chides ADD-suffering Sandinista Jones (named for the seminal Clash album) for not paying attention in class, the 18-year-old, whose single mother has recently died, gives up on school and life. The situation reminds Sandinista of all the times she failed to stand up for a mentally challenged student during Mrs. Bennett's endless taunting. To fill her days, the teen quickly finds a job at the Pale Circus, a vintage clothing store, a companion in heartache with co-worker and "druggie Robin Hood" Bradley and in possession of a handgun. Her resonant, thought-provoking first-person narration reveals her mounting helplessness, tension and guilt as on each passing day the school fails to call her (who's not paying attention now?) and makes readers gulp in anticipation as she plots revenge against Mrs. Bennett. It takes a village, or at least a street full of eclectic shop workers in her rundown Kansas City neighborhood, to raise Sandinista out of despair. From her newfound community, comprised of the HIV-positive Pale Circus owner, Erika of Erika's Erotic Confections, a sympathetic pawn-shop owner and friendly Trappist monks, she finds faith, the will to go on in and unexpected beauty in an often cruel world. Sharp storytelling indeed. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 10 Up-Eighteen-year-old Sandinista Jones, whose mother named her after an album by the legendary punk band, the Clash, believes that no one cares about her. Her angry-at-the-world attitude comes from a place of deep pain: she doesn't know her father and just lost her mother in a car accident. In a few places, the author portrays Sandinista's grief vividly with writing that mixes her nightmares and daydreams with reality, but overall the thin plot rests on the teen's desire for violent revenge against a nasty math teacher (and there's graphic language throughout). Throw in ADD and a weight of 105 pounds, and you have a character with too many problems to be believable. Fortunately, her job at a vintage store and love of yesterday's fashions enable Sandinista to enjoy a passion she shared with her mother, softening the hurt a little. That and her friendship with coworker Bradley leave her at novel's end with some hope, and perhaps a touch of sympathy from readers.-Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Sandinista's life is not going as planned. Her mother has just died; she lives alone, terrified in their house; and an abusive teacher has made her flee school. Something different is in order, so Sandinista goes to her favorite vintage shop, the Pale Circus, and takes a job. Now she is living in two worlds. One is work and the not-yet-gentrified neighborhood that also hosts a pawn shop, an erotic bakery, and a monastery, home to jam-making monks. The other is the world of her imagination, where she plots to kill her teacher. Though the central will-she-or-won't-she question moves the plot, what will hold readers spellbound are the words and images that swirl through the pages. Set in the winter, the story is wrapped in cold: Sandinista's icy inner dialogue; the frigid feel of a pink gun against her hand; the sweet lacquered crescendo of glass crashing on snow, when she throws a granite toad through the teacher's window. But there is also warmth, especially in the form of the Pale Circus' other young employee, Bradley, whose own pain allows him to know how to ease Sandinista's. O'Connell's references to the beauties and evils of Catholicism add elements in equal parts transcendent and gritty. The book takes place over the course of a week, but there are so many thoughtfully drawn characters and intense emotions that it reads like a small lifetime. Which, for Sandinista, it is.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)