I suspect many authors will agree with me\u00a0when I say that Kirkus reviews can make you shake in your boots. Kirkus doesn’t mince words. They know what they like and they’ll tell you when they don’t like something. And when I say they tell “you” I mean everyone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, tonight when I had an e-mail in my Inbox with the heading: King of the Screwups: Kirkus Review 3\/15\/09 <\/strong>it was a cause for fear and trembling. As I’ve previously admitted, I am a coward, so my first thought was to\u00a0make my husband read it for me and tell me if it was good or bad. Then I thought I just wouldn’t open the e-mail at all. But this was a stupid idea because clearly I was going to have to open it eventually. So finally I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and clicked the link. I opened one eye, scanned to the last line, which can very often tell you whether a review is good or scathing and…<\/p>\n

Voila! I couldn’t have been more shocked or excited. There sat a review which, although it is not a starred review, is one of the best reviews I’ve ever received.\u00a0And the best line is in the middle.<\/p>\n

So without further ado, here it is:<\/p>\n

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2009<\/p>\n

Going, K.L. KING OF THE SCREWUPS<\/p>\n

Popular, beautiful slacker Liam spends the majority of his time partying
\nand chasing girls instead of focusing on his studies. To keep him in
\ncheck, his dad kicks him out of the house and ships him off to live with
\nhis gay glam-rocking uncle. Bad hair, tights, bitchy neighbors, reality
\nchecks and fashion shows ensue. Going’s latest flows easily with smooth,
\nrealistic dialogue and reads like a coming-out story for straight guys.
\nThis innovative, out-of-the-box approach juxtaposes stereotypes,
\nreceived values, parental roles and masculinity in a jarringly fun and
\napproachable manner that marks a triumphant left-turn for the genre.
\nCloaked as a story of tough love, this is actually a psychological
\nexploration of the impact of parental expectations versus the dreams of
\ntheir children. Nothing earned comes easy, however, and Liam finds that
\nhe does need to switch some of the gears inside his head, but he’s not
\nas big of a screw-up as his parents make him out to be. Moreover,
\ntrouble does follow him wherever he goes, but avoiding it is easier when
\nyou’ve got the right kind of support. (Fiction. YA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suspect many authors will agree with me\u00a0when I say that Kirkus reviews can make you shake in your boots. Kirkus doesn’t mince words. They know what they like and they’ll tell you when they don’t like something. And when … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klgoing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}