Publishers Weekly
09/01/2014
Debut author Moracho takes a familiar setup—best friends with incompatible feelings—and examines it thoroughly and deeply. Althea and Oliver have been inseparable since they were kids. As they mature, Althea yearns for something more from their relationship while Oliver wants everything “to be normal.” Complicating matters, Oliver suffers from an onset of Kleine-Levin syndrome, a rare illness characterized by extreme periods of sleep, memory lapses, and erratic behavior. During one of Oliver’s episodes, he and Althea have sex, drawing a wedge in their friendship and causing her to act out violently. In what reads like a marked departure from the first half of the book, which is set in smalltown North Carolina, latter sections find Oliver in New York City, enrolled in a sleep study. Meanwhile, Althea attempts to track Oliver down but finds new friends and a stronger, more independent version of herself. Throughout the book, Oliver’s reserve is an effective counterpoint to Althea’s reckless responses to the teens’ respective predicaments. Moracho wisely resists a storybook ending for these two, concluding with what seems like the next logical step in their lives. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Althea & Oliver:
"The bittersweet romance, Oliver’s battle with his illness, and Althea’s coming-of-age struggle should appeal to fans of John Green and Sarah Dessen who are looking for something new." —VOYA
"Fans of Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park will enjoy debut author Cristina Moracho’s trip back to the 1990s in Althea and Oliver." —CNN.com
"A gut-wrenching tale." —People
"Moracho’s coming-of-age story carries rare insight and a keen understanding of those verging on adulthood." —Booklist, starred review
"It is the exquisitely created and painfully real, pitch-perfect characters who make it so memorable." —SLJ, starred review
"At turns gritty and gooey, Oliver and Althea’s evolving relationship unfolds in a warts-and-all narration that alternates between the two, deftly capturing the purgatorial crossroads between youth and adulthood . . . Mesmerizing." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Can boys and girls really be just friends? This endearing novel explores that, and a whole lot of other things including but not limited to: falling in love, punk rock, circa-’90s NYC, and a very complicated sleep disorder that causes those afflicted to fall asleep for days, weeks, even months at a time." —TeenVogue.com
"A gorgeous, glorious, unforgettable novel about punk rock, bad decisions, falling in love, and the messy beauty of growing up. Althea and Oliver is a flawlessly-crafted straight shot to the heart." —Sarah McCarry, author of All Our Pretty Songs
"Marrying dazzling prose and sharp-eyed realism, Althea & Oliver is a gritty, sparkling triumph. It's everything a novel is meant to be." —Bennett Madison, author of September Girls
"With beautiful language and wrenching, complicated relationship dynamics, Althea & Oliver captures the painful state of longing that is adolescence perfectly." —Corey Ann Haydu, author of OCD Love Story
It's very rare to come across either a book or two young protagonists as appealing and insightful as Althea & Oliver. Big-hearted and wiseassed and penetratingly smart, they experience growing up as a time machine that's whisked them into a future they don't want, even as they're dying to know what's out there." —Jim Shepard, author of Project X and You Think That's Bad
"I can't wait to tell people about this one. It's mind-blowingly good." —Molly Templeton, WORD Books
"Even if the book weren’t eloquent and hilarious, it’d be a must-read for all children of the ’90s. But thankfully, it is, and if you’re smart, you’ll run out and grab a copy." —Bustle
"Go buy this book! Read it now!" —Hello Giggles
A TIME Magazine Top 10 YA of 2014
An SLJ Best Books of the Year
A Booklist Editor's Choice 2014
A Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014
One of TeenVogue.com’s Best YA Books You Should Read This Fall
One of CNN.com’s 40 New Titles to Feed Your YA Book Addiction
School Library Journal
★ 06/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—This richly satisfying debut defies simple description. On its surface, it is about teenage best friends, a boy and a girl, who have complicated and messy feelings. Friends since they were six, the teens have grown up doors apart, both in single-parent families in Wilmington, North Carolina. What sets this novel apart is the way the youth are allowed to speak for themselves in all their chaotic, exciting complexity. Althea, who has anger issues, is in love with Oliver, which would be complicated enough even if Oliver didn't seem to be a modern-day Rip Van Winkle, falling into a strange, deep sleep at random moments and not waking up for weeks or months. Oliver's mom, Nicky, finds a doctor in her home city of New York who is conducting a study of this disorder, called Kleine-Levin Syndrome, and Oliver grudgingly agrees to participate. While he navigates the strange world of a hospital ward filled with other teenage boys with KLS, Althea tells her dad that she's taking a road trip to visit her mom in New Mexico, but then heads to New York City to find Oliver. Instead, she falls in with a collective house of crusty punks in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, who are perfectly described with deep familiarity instead of exotic detachment. Oliver's medical condition functions as both an interesting narrative quirk and a deeper metaphor, and the resolution is satisfyingly uncertain. The novel is set in the mid-1990s, which is vividly re-created with plenty of drinking, sex, and rock and roll, but it is the exquisitely created and painfully real, pitch-perfect characters who make it so memorable.—Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City
NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
Narrator Jorjeana Marie gives voice to the inner struggles of Althea and Oliver, two best friends since age 6 who are navigating their changing relationship at age 17. As Althea’s unrequited romantic feelings for Oliver grow, he deals with a strange illness that causes him to fall asleep for long periods of time. Listeners hear how these complications almost bring an end their relationship. Though Marie highlights subtleties in Althea’s character well, she doesn’t succeed as well with Oliver. His lines are mostly rushed and defensive, not only making him difficult to understand at times but also reducing his pain to petulance. Further, while Marie makes a decent attempt at Althea’s father’s Georgia accent, her North Carolina accent is over the top. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2014-08-06
This ain't no fairy tale: This raw coming-of-age novel captures the listless wanderings of teens at loose ends. Althea is always waiting for Oliver to wake up. Plagued by a mysterious affliction that renders him nearly comatose for weeks at a time, Oliver's increasingly unpredictable absences test his lifelong friendship with Althea at precisely the moment that the mounting sexual tension between them reaches the limits of plausible deniability. After a particularly intense bout causes him to sleep through the summer before their senior year, he wakes to find that life has gone on both with and without him, with startling consequences. At turns gritty and gooey, Oliver and Althea's evolving relationship unfolds in a warts-and-all narration that alternates between the two, deftly capturing the purgatorial crossroads between youth and adulthood. Moracho's descriptions are vivid and arresting—a potent cocktail of speed and Southern Comfort "unbutton[s] [Althea's] diffidence like a blouse and cast[s] it aside" at a punk-rock concert—which both grounds the story in familiar details and filigrees it with poetic flourishes. There is rich potential for crossover appeal here; while Althea and Oliver's fumbling progress toward maturity will resonate with teens currently in the angst-filled trenches, the characters' worldly-wise perspectives on their own histrionics will give adult readers reason to nod and sigh in appreciative recognition: Growing up is a messy business.Mesmerizing. (Fiction. 14 & up)
