Publishers Weekly
05/20/2024
Hopkins (People Kill People) employs her signature grit and compelling verse to deliver a wrenching interpretation of the foster care system. Seventeen-year-old twins Lake and Storm endured a childhood of abuse and neglect before being admitted into the California foster care system and separated from each other. Following a brief period in juvenile detention, Storm finds stability with his single foster parent as well as his girlfriend Jailyn, “who lifts the storm/ clouds and lets her light in.” Meanwhile, Lake is staying with a deeply religious foster family and her fellow foster Parker, with whom she begins a secret romantic relationship. After reuniting for an afternoon, Lake and Storm are ripped apart again when their worlds simultaneously implode—Storm injures a classmate who assaulted Jailyn, and Lake’s foster parents discover that she’s queer. Told through letters and mental musings to each other, this haunting read weaves together instances of trauma, violence, homelessness, incarceration, and sexual assault that the siblings experience during their childhood and adolescence as they try to make their way back to each other; glimmers of kindness and love sometimes provide bright spots to their bleak reality. Characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Sync:
An Amazon Best Book of the Month – September 2024
An August 2024 Kobo Best of the Month Selection
★ “Twins Storm and Lake, 17, have been tossed from one foster home to the next …[Their] stories are told through undelivered letters the two write to each other. Written in true Hopkins style, these verses pack a punch… Their captivating voices make it all the more heartbreaking…This story is highly accessible and will be devoured by realistic fiction readers.”—School Library Journal, starred review
“Ellen Hopkins can convey so much in so few words… If you came for a stirring page-turner that sparks conversation, Sync is definitely a winner.”—Associated Press
“Storm and Lake share Hopkins' signature lucid free-verse narrative, and while the events are heartrending, terrible, and too frequent, their resilience shows, even when they are at their lowest points…Hopkins is a household name in the YA literary world, and her many fans will be eager to get their hands on her latest offering.”—Booklist
"A gritty, powerful novel in verse...poignant, unflinching...the narrative doesn’t shy away from portraying the harsh realities of a broken foster care system. A wrenching and necessary read."—Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
★ 08/01/2024
Gr 9 Up—Twins Storm and Lake, 17, have been tossed from one foster home to the next since facing abuse from and abandonment by their parents and grandmother. They have been each other's constant, taking care of each other and tuned into each other's feelings—in sync. In a stroke of cruelty, they are currently separated and desperate for opportunities to communicate. Readers meet Storm while he is living in a kind home, his girlfriend Jaidyn nearby. He and Lake lived happily with a foster family long ago, but the years since have been cruel to him. Life is looking up, though. Like Storm, Lake is in love. She is in an uncomfortable living situation with ultra-religious foster parents, but she also has a girlfriend: Parker, the other teen in the home. Storm and Lake's stories are told through undelivered letters the two write to each other. Their captivating voices make it all the more heartbreaking when their lives start to unravel. The two are plunged to new depths, ripped from the ones they love, and thrown into systems meant to crush them. As the characters' lives come apart, readers will ache to see Storm and Lake find salvation. This one will best fit school libraries with mature readers: depictions include teen sex and events that should never happen to any child, including sexual assault and suicide. VERDICT Written in true Hopkins style, these verses pack a punch with low word count. This story is highly accessible and will be devoured by realistic fiction readers.—Jill Shepard
Kirkus Reviews
2024-05-17
A gritty, powerful novel in verse that follows California siblings as they navigate the foster care system.
After a rough placement at age 12, twins Storm and Lake were separated by the state and haven’t seen each other since. Storm has been in juvie, though he’s finally settled, with a decent foster parent and a new girlfriend, Jaidyn. Lake’s position living with a strict Christian family is tenuous, complicated by the fact that she’s falling for her lesbian roommate, Parker. A reunion allows the 17-year-olds to reestablish “our sync”—reading each other’s thoughts and body language with ease. But as quickly as they’ve reconnected, they’re ripped apart when Storm is arrested for avenging Jaidyn’s sexual assault by an ex. Lake and Parker’s luck is no better; they run away and begin to deal drugs to stay afloat. The twins both hit rock bottom: Lake encounters unimaginable violence while living on the streets, and Storm is placed in a juvenile detention center yet again. Through it all, they hold on to hopes of reuniting and finding their sync again. The twins’ dual perspectives are told in poignant, unflinching free verse, with natural breaks according to teenage speech patterns, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from portraying the harsh realities of a broken foster care system. Though the siblings face relentless abuse and tragedy, the conclusion is ultimately hopeful, if tied up a bit too neatly. Most characters are cued white.
A wrenching and necessary read. (Verse fiction. 14-18)
