Promise Me Something

July 22, 2013
When Reyna Fey’s house is redistricted, it means she’ll be starting high school at Belltown High, while all her friends will attend nearby Ridgeway. Seven years earlier, Reyna’s mother was killed by a drunk driver, and a recent car accident nearly did the same to her father, so Reyna is angry and scared when blunt, bossy, and painfully unpopular Olive Barton bounds into her life. “You’re the only person in this school who needs a friend as much as me,” Olive tells Reina, who can’t exactly disagree. They begin a tentative friendship, but Olive doesn’t fit in with Reyna’s increasingly distant friends from middle school, and when Olive shares a deeply held secret about herself, Reyna’s reaction, born in part out of her own conservative upbringing, has potentially devastating consequences. Kocek’s hard-hitting first novel offers smart dialogue, sharp descriptions, and a plot that unfolds in unexpected ways, as she explores the destructive power of casual, everyday homophobia, especially in a claustrophobic high school environment where adults and students are content to look the other way. Ages 13–up. Agent: Logan Garrison, Gernert Company.

Starred review from August 15, 2013
High school as crucible of character is a mainstay of teen fiction, but seldom have its dilemmas and dramas been so precisely re-created in all their brutal, claustrophobic intensity as in this debut: part morality play, part suspense tale. Reyna Fey begins freshman year under a cloud. Her friends attend the town's other high school. She still bears scars from the death of her mother, killed by a drunk driver; her father's girlfriend, Lucy, crashed his car, injuring him, yet they're closer than ever. When a smart, odd and prickly classmate befriends her, Reyna is conflicted. Olive's a social pariah, but her frankness and honesty attract shy Reyna, who keeps her own resentments under wraps, muffled by a conventional Roman Catholic upbringing. Observing a homophobic history teacher and discovering that Levi, the boy she's drawn to, has two mothers challenge Reyna's worldview but fail to dislodge her assumptions or overcome her longing to be included in the social wolf pack. Watching Reyna repeatedly abandon her better self to chase the ephemera of "normalcy" is gripping and agonizing. Olive--manipulative and rude--is no angel, but in high school's deceptive hall of mirrors, her honesty is as valuable as it is rare. Compelling, honest storytelling. (Fiction. 13 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Rude, pushy Olive chooses Reyna Fey as a friend, and Reyna, a new freshman separated from her middle-school friends, reluctantly accepts her friendship. In addition to adapting to a different school, Reyna is coping with her mother's death and her father's remarriage. Perhaps, it is her sadness that attracts complex Olive. Reyna also makes friends with a boy named, Levi. One night during a sleepover, Olive reveals that she is a lesbian. Reyna's association with her goes into a tailspin and she eventually befriends the popular girls in school, who torment Olive and other outcasts. Events unfold that challenge everything Reyna, a devote Catholic, believes in. With themes of homosexuality, teen suicide, and death, the book invites readers to ask themselves some difficult questions. The heavy themes are explored as gently as possible without glossing over uncomfortable situations. All of these elements, including a plot twist, make this book a better-than-average problem novel.-Mindy Whipple, West Jordan Library, UT

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.