Review by Booklist Review
A lie of omission is still a lie, and that includes secrets. Aubrey knows this. They know that there's so much more they could say about the night their best friend, Joel, disappeared, that the things left unsaid are part of the reason he is gone. But what if talking about that night reveals all the secrets both Joel and Aubrey have been keeping? And what do you do when the secrets get bigger? What do you do when you are the secret? These are the questions that Aubrey, a white child in a predominantly white Catholic town in rural Kentucky, grapples with as they deal with biracial (half Black, half white) Joel's disappearance. Thompson's debut is a heartfelt coming-of-age journey that explores identity, friendship, and learning to accept who you are, even if you don't quite understand it yet. Aubrey's outer journey to find Joel--with help from their friend Mari (a fellow outsider with two moms) and Aubrey's perfect older sister, Teagan--is handled as beautifully as their inner journey to find themselves. While readers can easily guess at the secrets eating away at Aubrey and Joel, the anxiety and weight of all the lies feel real, and the revelations unspool in a way that remains suspenseful. Strongly recommended for any reader who enjoys a story powered by the bonds of friendship.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After a miserable sixth-grade year, white Kentuckian Aubrey feels most comfortable in the woods, playing the Running-Away Game with their best friend Joel, who's biracial (Black/white) and "the same kind of weird" as Aubrey--interested in make-believe and the natural world. When Joel disappears one night, having experienced regular bullying at school, Aubrey has an idea about what happened to him but doesn't tell anyone, even the police and Joel's distraught parents, whom Aubrey says don't "deserve to know the parts of the story I'm leaving out." Secretly, Aubrey--accompanied by two trusted companions, schoolmate Mari and older sister Teagan--sets out on a trek into the woods to find Joel. In a sensitively written first novel, Thompson addresses issues of gender identity, privilege, and prejudice through a candid first-person narrative, filled with flashbacks and ruminations, that offers a window into Aubrey's and Joel's evolving relationship and internal conflicts. Set in a conservative, predominantly white Catholic town in which the community doesn't always warmly receive those it considers outliers, this heartfelt story shows rather than tells how friendship can lead to understanding. Ages 8--12. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt & Zacker. (Mar.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Shortly after the end of sixth grade, Aubrey's best friend, Joel, goes missing, and Aubrey knows more than they're saying. It started with the Running-Away Game, but Aubrey never suspected Joel would actually run away. Neither Aubrey nor Joel fit in in their small, mostly Catholic Kentucky town. They would rather talk about different kinds of bugs and play pretend in the woods than follow the social rules of middle school. Middle school has also turned the class clown into the class bully, one who targets Joel for being gay--even though Joel's not even sure that he is. Aubrey is also struggling with their identity; being a girl feels like a lie, but what else is there? Aubrey, with their friend Mari's support, sets out into the woods to find Joel, and while the unfolding plot is interesting, the real enjoyment is in the characters and themes. Despite telling the story through Aubrey's eyes, Thompson shows each character's struggles to be unique and important. Aubrey notices the differences between their experience as a White, female-assigned person who doesn't conform to gender roles and Joel's experience as a Black boy in a predominantly White town who doesn't live up to the demands of masculinity. They even see that toxic masculinity (though Aubrey does not have the terminology to name it) affects the bullies, too. A gentle and genuine coming-out story. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
