Emmy & Oliver

Starred review from April 13, 2015
Ten years ago, Emmy’s friend and next-door neighbor, Oliver, was kidnapped by his father, and his mother has been searching for him ever since. Meanwhile, Emmy’s shaken parents have become stiflingly overprotective (“In the years since Oliver had disappeared, my parents had reacted by making sure I wouldn’t disappear, too”). But now Oliver, found in New York City, has returned home, and high-school senior Emmy tries to rekindle a friendship with a boy who has become a stranger. In a novel sensitively tracing an awkward reunion that blossoms into romance, Benway (the Also Known As series) examines split loyalties, the impact of confessionals, and how broken bonds can be mended. Emmy is a quick-witted, diplomatic narrator, who yearns for freedom from her parents and the closeness she once felt with Oliver. Oliver, whose life has been turned upside down twice, is cast as a confused outsider, forced back into a life he barely remembers. Benway’s intriguing premise and honest tone are a winning combination as she movingly portrays the growing trust between her characters. Ages 13–up. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Company.

April 15, 2015
A girl loses her best friend when he's kidnapped by his father at 7 and must cope when he returns 10 years later. After constantly wondering about his fate for a decade, at first Emmy doesn't know how to approach Oliver when he returns, but soon their former friendship becomes a romance. However, family difficulties persist. Oliver can't fit in with his mother and her new family, feeling as though he's been "kidnapped all over again." Emmy's parents have overprotected her to the extent that she lies to them about her surfing and even applying to college, triggering near hysteria in her mother when she is found out. Meanwhile, they also deal with their friends, who suffer more typical adolescent traumas. As the story progresses, Benway peels away the surface and digs down to the raw emotions the teens and their families feel, focusing on Emmy's family as seen from the inside while watching Oliver's family from the outside. She avoids depicting any deep psychological wounds that Oliver suffers, while indicating that those wounds exist. Instead, the story becomes more about the struggle between Emmy and her parents, who suffocate her with their irrational fears, than a study of deep emotional trauma. As a portrait of the emerging adolescent, it engages, even if it gives the effects of the kidnapping on its victim short shrift. (Fiction. 12-18)

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March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Emmy and Oliver were the best of friends up until the third grade, when Oliver disappeared, leaving their community forever changed. Years later, high school senior Emmy still lives next door to the house where Oliver lived with his mother and she has never been able to forget him. Emmy lives with the consequences of Oliver's kidnapping, as her parents smother her with rules and restrictions meant to keep her safe. She doesn't feel like she can be her own person with the weight of the past constantly influencing her life. But then one day, Oliver is back. He is grown up, guarded, and confused. Oliver thought that his mother had abandoned him, when in fact his father kidnapped him, and he was discovered by chance when he gives fingerprints on a school field trip. Although Emmy is a vaguely familiar face, he doesn't know how to bridge the time gap and find a place to belong in this community again. Oliver and Emmy try to do just that, amid the chaos surrounding Oliver's past and Emmy's uncertain future. The circumstances of this story provide a perfect setting to explore how two young people navigate new adulthood and forge new identities. This book is at times heartfelt, funny, irreverent, and ultimately satisfying. VERDICT Plot driven as well as introspective, it is a good choice for fans of Stephanie Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss (Dutton, 2010) or any of Sarah Dessen's novels.-Tara Kron, formerly at School Library Journal

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
Grades 8-12 Emmy and Oliver, next-door neighbors born on the same day, had been best friends since birth. When they were seven, Oliver's dad kidnapped him from school, and the world changed immediately. Scarred lives and altered relationships are front and center while everyone tries to maintain a sense of normality. That uneasy status quo suddenly is tested by Oliver's return 10 years later. No one is certain how to handle what was always hoped for, but little by little, as Emmy makes her way into Oliver's life, the healing begins. This coming-of-age tale with a twist is filled with emotional wounds that are deep and painful and conversations that are awkward and revealing. Rather than focusing solely on Emmy and Oliver's relationship, Benway fearlessly examines the effects of loss and return from every perspective: Oliver, his friends, his mother and her new family, Emmy's parents. Hope, confusion, frustration, and love coexist without shame as teens and parents come to grips with the realization that nothing stays the same no matter how desperately we want it to.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
Emmy lost her best friend Oliver at the age of seven when he was kidnapped by his noncustodial father. Ten years later, Oliver has been found and returned home--but will he fit back into his old life? Benway focuses her heartfelt novel mostly on Emmy's relatable teenage concerns and parent issues, but Oliver's traumatic story helps raise the stakes for all concerned.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)