Breakfast with Neruda

Gr 9 Up—This debut novel offers honest yet optimistic insight into teenage homelessness and hoarding. Despite getting expelled for bringing a bomb to school, Michael Flynn, 18, is a straight-A honors student with good manners. During the summer, he is relegated to cleaning the school to avoid jail time. There, he meets fellow rebel Shelly, who discovers that Michael lives in his station wagon. The two form a relationship but keep secrets from each other. Michael finds out the reason his mom hoards and never brings it up to her, yet a quarter of the book is his mother's diary, which never feels completely integrated into the text. Though the mother's entries provide context for Michael's family's issues, they make the work feel disjointed. Michael also visits his father, whom he researched throughout the novel, but this narrative thread doesn't get fully resolved. Michael is a likable protagonist. However, the characters aren't dynamic, and the work's dialogue varies and is inauthentic to the characters. The author's important message about homeless teens and how people shouldn't judge them gets confused in the inconsistent writing style. The conclusion also lacks punch.