Jackpot

August 5, 2019
On Christmas Eve, Gas ’n’ Go employee Rico Danger, 17, sells two lottery tickets to a woman with memory troubles. After Rico realizes that one of them may be worth $106 million, she begins obsessing about the winning ticket’s whereabouts. Rico’s mother works too much, mismanages her meager earnings, and refuses to go on Medicaid; Rico handles the family’s finances and works double shifts to make rent; and her little brother keeps getting sick. When nobody claims the jackpot after several days, Rico enlists classmate Zan Macklin, a wealthy computer whiz, to help her track down the customer. As they work together, she and Zan careen toward a romance layered with intersectional issues: multiethnic Rico is believably resentful about her family’s situation; Zan, part white and part Latinx, is often oblivious to his privilege and high-handed with his wealth; and neither believes they have much choice for their future. Interstitials by objects (“A Word from the Right Ticket”) occasionally disrupt the first-person narration, and the primary relationship suffers from an insufficiently characterized male lead. But Stone (Odd One Out) authentically portrays the precarious, terrifying act of living with far less than is needed to survive, and its financial and emotional fallout. Ages 14–up.

Listeners will find winning humor in this audiobook as narrator and author Nic Stone provides a flawless, upbeat performance. She gives voice to Rico and Zan--teenagers on a mission to find an unclaimed winning lottery ticket that could help Rico's struggling family. Stone taps into Rico's perseverance and strength as she tries to keep her family financially afloat. To track down the winning ticket, she reluctantly ropes in Zan, whose breezy laid-back tone reflects his privileged upbringing--opposites quickly attract! Listeners get the bonus of hearing the flirtatious back-and-forth between the teens, including Zan's capricious way of mispronouncing Rico's surname. Stone also brings a delightfully over-the-top performance to the inanimate objects that act as a Greek chorus. J.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine