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Biography of X by Catherine Lacey review – who is this mysterious artist?

An impressive and enchantingly strange novel plays with genre, identity and politics in an alternate America

C elebrated for her novels, her art installations and her musical collaborations with David Bowie, Tom Waits and Tony Visconti, the artist known as X was, until her death in 1996, one of the more enigmatic cultural figures of the 20th century. She always refused to confirm her place or date of birth, and after she took the pseudonym “X” in 1982, it was never clear which if any of her previous identities – Dorothy Eagle, Clyde Hill, Caroline Walker, Bee Converse – corresponded to her actual name. This is a biography drawing on X’s archives and a range of interviews with the people closest to her, joining the dots about her background and exploring her difficult relationship with contemporary America. And it is, like X herself, entirely a work of fiction.

Catherine Lacey, the author of this haunting, genre-bending novel, has form investigating characters with mysterious identities. Her previous book, Pew , was a gothic fable set in America’s Bible belt, narrated by an unnamed protagonist whose race, gender and age are never established. Pew, so nicknamed because they are discovered sleeping in a church, mirrors the anxieties and fractures of the world they turn up in – a world that becomes progressively weirder as we read the novel.

Though it is structured in a similar way and drawn to the same themes, Biography of X is a stranger, more ambitious and more accomplished book. The conceit is that the book’s actual author is CM Lucca, X’s widow. Annoyed by the publication of an inaccurate biography of her late wife, Lucca has resolved to set the record straight. Complete with extensive bibliography, photographs, footnotes, images of X’s books and art, and even front matter that attributes the copyright to CM Lucca, 2005, Biography of X is presented to the reader as a simulacrum of a nonfiction work. This is an enchantingly strange proposition and, like Pew, it only gets stranger.

First of all, as the prickly and somewhat self-involved CM Lucca attempts to explain her motives for writing the book, you are troubled by little oddities in the narrative. Pretty soon it becomes clear that the events of the book take place on an alternative timeline of US history in a world very different from our own. The election of a female socialist president in the 1940s has led to the secession of some of the southern states. These so-called Southern Territories have become a dictatorial theocracy complete with their own morality police. Meanwhile the north has pursued a range of radically progressive policies – a kind of wish list of enlightened thinking that ought to have created a utopia yet somehow hasn’t.

There’s something wondrous about the way the book backs into its high concept. While CM Lucca is fretting over the meaning of her relationship with X and settling scores with the other biography, a huge vista opens up behind her. It’s like looking at a family photograph in which something truly extraordinary – an avalanche or alien invasion – is taking place in the background.

It turns out that X’s origins lie across the border, in the recently reunified (or conquered?) Southern Territories. Visiting them, like a traveller to North Korea, the narrator is assigned a Travel Mentor and begins tracking down X’s family members and childhood friends. This parallel reality is evoked with brilliant specificity. One tiny example: when the narrator visits a house there, a man briefly enters the room to ask his sister for a glass of milk. “A grown man unable to pour himself a glass of milk, I thought. This is the sort of person an authoritarian theocracy produces.”

The different versions of America – one where same-sex marriage has been legal for decades, another where it’s regarded as an abomination – are clearly extrapolations from our present. Yet the conflict between their mutually uncomprehending worlds is not fuel for a polemic but presented with thoughtfulness and nuance. “Their ability to love a concept as large and appealing as God was used against them again and again,” we read of the oppressed population in the theocratic South. It’s a great line that suggests links between the speculative world of the book and the victims of other utopian schemes.

As the book uncovers details of X’s past in the Southern Territories, it forces us to re-evaluate her art, which acquires more urgent and political overtones. X’s exploration of artistic freedom and refusal to be confined by any single identity seem very different in the light of her upbringing in a virtually totalitarian world. But the move to the north is not a happy ending. X remains a contrarian to the end, ruffling feathers, bracingly defending her right to inhabit multiple personas. “There was no con, there was no crime. There was only fiction,” she says. And as the book builds to its unexpected and yet somehow inevitable conclusion, the line between life and art becomes menacingly blurry.

At times I couldn’t tell the difference between the real and imagined characters. Among X’s acquaintances are a half-Russian New York socialite, Oleg Hall, who owes his fortune to his parents’ murder-suicide, and a folk musician called Connie Converse , who vanishes in mysterious circumstances, leaving a trove of unreleased recordings. Both seemed equally bizarre; only one of them is invented.

There is so much that’s impressive about this book. It makes you think afresh about America and American history. It roves over the muddy trenches of identity politics while saying things that are original and not parti pris. At its centre, X is a charismatic, tantalising figure who takes aim at all orthodoxies. My one quibble with the novel is that there’s a tendency to apostrophise too much about the puzzles of love, art and identity at the heart of the book. The courageous world-building and bold storytelling carry these themes without any need for additional rhetorical flourishes.

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It’s hard to locate influences, but one mention of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges made me think of his story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius . In this strange tale, objects from a fictional world penetrate our world and transform it. A lovingly made facsimile of a nonfiction book, Biography of X resembles a Tlönian artefact from a parallel reality. Though it may not change the world, it will leave the reader altered.

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Catherine Lacey’s Alternate America

Halfway through the novel Biography of X, the X in question — a brilliant performance artist, daring political dissident, and, according to her biographer, kind of a cruel jerk — is described by David Byrne as “incapable of returning friendship.” That appraisal, we’re told, was printed in a previous biography of the artist. Except at the end of this book-within-a-book, behind a sheaf of gradated pages, an endnote gives the real-life attribution to another Talking Heads member, Tina Weymouth — who was describing Byrne.

Catherine Lacey’s new high-concept work is full of these kinds of jokingly layered quotations, many of them ventriloquized by X. Through her speak Susan Sontag, Cy Twombly, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, to name just a few. “I wanted to write a real biography of a real person,” Lacey said in an interview last year, “but a teacher of mine encouraged me not to do that, saying it would ruin my life.” Instead, she has put together a real-seeming account of a fake artist. X takes on dozens of personae: a small-press publisher named Martina Riggio, an underground novelist named Cindy O, an imperious artist known only as Vera. X’s wife, C. M. Lucca, is the biographer — which is to say Lacey’s narrator. Their sour love story is woven through an alternate history in which the southern U.S. pulled off a surprise secession in 1945.

The text begins with C.M., freshly widowed, wandering New York and half-heartedly considering throwing herself from a building. She describes herself as seeming “plain and glamourless”; when X was alive, she felt like both a secretary and a mobster’s wife, required by her celebrity spouse to be a neutral administrative presence. Despite this, or because of it, she was unquestioningly devoted to the artist. C.M. left her husband for X, and when they were near each other she felt a “sort of buzzing sensation … as if I’d just been plugged in.” X, meanwhile, was proud, petty, often cold (especially toward C.M.), and remarkable to almost everyone who knew her from Byrne on down. A childhood friend who cries when she remembers X marvels that “she could write backward just as quick as she could write forward — even in cursive and everything.”

Spite shakes C.M. out of the worst of her grief. A man named Theodore Smith has published a biography of X, and it’s clumsily written, full of errors, and “practically radiant with inanity.” It barely punctures the surface of the artist’s life. C.M. sets out to write a corrective essay that uncovers her wife’s birthplace and real name, but the project spirals almost immediately. “I did not know that by beginning this research I had doomed myself in a thousand ways,” C.M. writes, and the gradual reveal of what, exactly, could be so horrifying is this narrative’s main thread.

X, C.M. is shocked to learn, was born in the Southern Territory, the portion of the U.S. that splintered off after a far-right Christian overthrow. Until the Reunification in 1996, it was almost impossible for any Southern citizen to escape to the Northern or Western Territories, and the few who did were tracked down to be brought back or killed. X was an exception. It’s a dizzying reorientation for a novel that initially seems to be about the art world. Lacey’s alternate America is dense with detail, and we learn about not only the factors leading to the secession (Emma Goldman’s appointment to FDR’s cabinet, for one) but also the specifics of, say, a spate of atonic seizures experienced by dozens of women in one Alabama county after the Reunification. In the North, same-sex marriage has long been legal and prisons are nearly abolished.

The Southern Territory and X’s perilous escape are a way for Lacey — who grew up religious in Mississippi — to get at the question of what happens when someone who was raised to believe they live in a world with a god absconds from that world. For all the detail, though, parts of her alternate America feel underrealized. The pages devoted to the Black citizens of the Southern Territory, who face a virulently racist society, pass quickly with a nod to the networks of “unfathomable charity” that sustained them. Surely a novel about a South that seceded in 1945 might lend more of its plot to Black communities, and surely the North at that time would have its own intense racism. But those ideas aren’t given much narrative priority here.

The side-stepping continues later. Describing X’s support of a collective of Black artists, C.M. admits she is “far from an expert” on the group, and she directs “those looking for further reading” to Black Futures, edited by Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew. C.M. says the book was published in 1998; really, it came out in 2020 and is about Black creators more broadly. The gesture seems gracious but nervous, as if Lacey would rather leave that particular tangle of ideas to other authors.

It’s not the only place in the novel’s web of citations, names, and quotations that has a constraining effect. After X makes her way to the Northern Territory, she begins a grand tour of 1960s and ’70s America and Europe, exercising a subtle influence over familiar cultural products like an artsy, self-actualized Forrest Gump. She hangs out with Tom Waits at Electric Lady Studios. She goes to West Berlin with David Bowie. She moves to Italy and collaborates with feminist activist Carla Lonzi, and she stalks Sophie Calle for an art piece. In the chapters in which X lives with the cult-favorite songwriter Connie Converse, Lacey inches closest to straightforward biography. At times, it’s exhilarating, but the warped cultural history doesn’t consistently enhance the plot; at its worst, it feels like a distraction, and the point of it all can be hard to grasp. As X becomes famous for her writing and art, she is interviewed by journalists, many of them presented anachronistically and some imbued with a political life they might not actually have had. The culture writer Durga Chew-Bose, for instance, reports an article about Southern- Territory refugees in 1999 — when she would have been 13 in reality. Is this a joke? A wink? Flattery? Are we even supposed to notice Chew-Bose’s misplacement in time, or any of the misattributed quotes sprinkled throughout, unless we happen to flip back to those endnotes? It’s unclear.

The chapters in which C.M. makes a reporting trip to the Southern Territory are virtuosic; the material that follows a shift to the New York City art and publishing- worlds, with the egos and press cycles and shallow gallerists and mousy editors, doesn’t always gel in the same way. These sections are impressively populated, but, like a real biography, they can start to feel dutiful. Maybe all the actual people whose lives intersect with X’s are meant to give us recurring jolts of reality, and maybe Lacey’s use of them mimics the artist’s identity borrowing. Or perhaps the many prodigies who surround her, the Byrnes and Sontags, are there to convince us of X’s genius — a solution to that old problem of how an ordinary writer can persuasively portray a brilliant thinker within their novel.

But Lacey herself is brilliant. As in her earlier fiction, she is thinking deeply about what we give up to other people when we love them. Under all the narrative scaffolding, the moments in Biography of X that land most reliably have to do with long-suffering C.M., whose mourning — she is “romanced by grief,” she says — turns to horror as she unpeels her wife’s layers of secrecy and manipulation. The quandary C.M. faces is something Lacey’s been puzzling over from the beginning of her career, and in Biography of X, she has reached a new level of understanding. In her 2018 story “Violations,” a man tries to parse a short story by his ex-wife that may be about him, and The Answers (2006) follows a woman hired to participate in a simulated relationship with a super-celebrity. Here, C.M. has consented to submit to the experiment of love, but she’s only half-informed; much has been concealed from her. The same could be said of us.

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Powerful, haunting story of finding your voice and power.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

This novel in verse shows the power of spoken word

Strong messages about the importance of being your

While Xiomara is neglected by adults in her househ

Xiomara often discusses how she uses her fists to

Much discussion, curiosity about sex as main chara

Some swear words, including "ho," "bullsh--t," "s-

Talk of drug dealers on street corners and an adul

Parents need to know that Elizabeth Acevedo's New York Times best-seller The Poet X is the winner of the 2019 Printz Award. It's a coming-of-age story about a first-generation Dominican American teen, Xiomara, growing up as a thoroughly American young woman with a developed body in a deeply religious …

Educational Value

This novel in verse shows the power of spoken word poetry and provides insight into and understanding of the effects of street harassment and family strife.

Positive Messages

Strong messages about the importance of being yourself, finding your own voice while standing against efforts to silence it, becoming comfortable with your own sexuality.

Positive Role Models

While Xiomara is neglected by adults in her household, there are two adults outside her home who offer her respite, help: her teacher and her priest. Xiomara is strong, willing to physically take on those who try to debase her. Ultimately, Xiomara uses resources available to her -- her teacher and priest -- to help remedy a radically out-of-control and abusive situation.

Violence & Scariness

Xiomara often discusses how she uses her fists to deal with boys who ogle and grope her. She also fights boys who threaten her brother. To punish her child, a mother makes her kneel on uncooked rice and strikes and smacks her, causing injury.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Much discussion, curiosity about sex as main character comes to terms with changes in her body and how those changes bring unwanted attention from males and females. Because she has developed faster than other girls, she realizes she is punished by both sides for being "wanton" or a danger -- for something she has no control over. Discussion of wanting to kiss boys, a religious perspective on sex outside of marriage, some actual kissing and hand-holding. One scene of heavy petting without clothes on. A girl is groped against her will and experiences street harassment. One character is revealed as gay, adults are described as having affairs, and a girl describes a masturbation experience.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some swear words, including "ho," "bullsh--t," "s--t," "damn." A girl is verbally attacked for having D-cup breasts.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Talk of drug dealers on street corners and an adult man who's an alcoholic.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Elizabeth Acevedo's New York Times best-seller The Poet X is the winner of the 2019 Printz Award . It's a coming-of-age story about a first-generation Dominican American teen, Xiomara, growing up as a thoroughly American young woman with a developed body in a deeply religious (Catholic) immigrant home. There are instances of street harassment, parental abuse, religious discussions, sexual exploration (some kissing, and one scene of heavy petting), and the revelation of a character being gay. Xiomara hits boys who ogle and grope her and also fights boys who threaten her brother. As punishment, her mother makes her kneel on uncooked rice and hits Xiomara, causing injury. Parents should be prepared to talk about agency, finding your voice, and religious texts and meaning.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (10)
• Kids say (22)

Based on 10 parent reviews

Poet X not for younger teens

Good, relatable for high school kids and immigrants, however, parental consent should be required because of the sexual stuff, what's the story.

Xiomara is THE POET X, and her life is a constant fight. She fights for her brother, who won't fight for himself. She fights with her mother, who sees her as nothing more than sin; she fights the world for telling her she is nothing more than her hips, boobs, and thighs. She fights a religion that doesn't seem quite fair; she fights to be visible, to be free, to have a voice. Then she fights to keep it. Xiomara is ready to open her fists and raise her voice. The school's poetry slam club is a way to take back her power, but is the world -- is her family -- ready for Xiomara?

Is It Any Good?

This novel in verse is stunning, beautiful, and uncomfortably accurate at times. In The Poet X , author Elizabeth Acevedo takes readers through Xiomara's life as she finds herself being punished for simply existing and having the audacity to want to exist outside of the narrow boxes where society, religion, and her mother have decided she belongs. Readers can feel the shame, fear, and confusion Xiomara grapples with so much that they may have to resist the temptation to withdraw into themselves like Xiomara.

Acevedo perfectly captures what it's like to have a changing body that suddenly becomes an indictment against who you are, even though you have no control over how it has blossomed into womanhood. The sexualization and policing of girls' bodies, and the silencing of their voices by those who install themselves as their protectors, is particularly striking in this moment of the #MeToo movement and the nationwide battles over school dress codes that unfairly target girls and women. The book is timely, sensitive, powerful, and hopeful. Families of both boys and girls can have great discussions about puberty, gender politics, religion, and finding your voice.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Poet X confronts street harassment and policing of girls' bodies. Have you ever been harassed on the street or seen someone being harassed? How did it make you feel? Are there unfair or highly detailed dress codes for girls at your school? Is that fair? If not, what can you do about it?

Are there certain jobs or chores that are divided by gender? How does that make you feel? What can you do to address gender stereotypes at school, at home, and in your community?

Growing up can be tough. Do you have an outlet for your feelings? What do you do to express yourself?

Book Details

• Author : Elizabeth Acevedo
• Genre : Coming of Age
• Topics : Arts and Dance , Great Girl Role Models , High School
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : HarperTeen
• Publication date : March 6, 2018
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 13 - 18
• Number of pages : 368
• Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Awards : ALA Best and Notable Books , Pura Belpré Awards and Honors
• Last updated : April 13, 2024

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Book Reviews

'x' looks at a subculture that mainstream american art has frequently shied away from.

Michael Schaub

Lee, the narrator of Davey Davis' X , could be any person you see walking the streets of Brooklyn.

They have a day job at a big corporation, they're crashing at a friend's apartment after a messy breakup, and they spend their time listening to true-crime stories and hooking up with people they meet at clubs and parties. There's one difference, though.

"I listen to the murder podcast when I go for my late-night walks, salt squeaking beneath my boots," they explain. "In the dark, I'm not a pedestrian or a potential victim. I'm the street silhouette observed — or not — by those inside. I'm the dangerous one. I like that."

Lee is a sadist, given to violent fantasies, trying to put their life back together after a failed relationship, while at the same time navigating the dystopian society that America has become. X is far from an ordinary love story — it's a shocking and moving novel about what it means to be an outsider in a world that's crumbling around you.

X opens with Lee in a dungeon, having agreed to take part in a woman's dark fantasy. Although Lee prefers to give pain rather than receive it, they're indulging in the woman's "Lynndie England fetish" — she wants to waterboard Lee for her own gratification. It's "not political, just sexy," she explains to them.

Lee is submitting to the fantasy because they think the woman might know the location of X, a woman they met at a warehouse party. Lee is immediately drawn in by X's dark vibe: "There was something about her that was familiar, the way she held and moved her body, a visual aroma twisting against itself, a dynamic tension — as if the Helmut Newton photos of Grace Jones and Sigourney Weaver had locked eyes in the midst of an orgy, recognizing each other from a previous life. I didn't know her, but I instantly knew something important about her, which was that I had never seen anyone like her before."

Lee follows X to her room in a punk commune, and X subjects Lee to an intense sadistic sex session on a bench fitted with stirrups. "Of course I cried," Lee recounts. "I knew what she was going to do, but I wasn't angry ... I wanted my anger, but I couldn't find it." Afterwards, X disappears and Lee, now obsessed with her, searches for her in the spaces of New York's queer scene.

It's a difficult search. The rumor is that X is planning to "export," or leave the country after being ordered to by the government, which is running a program to get people they consider undesirable — people of color, antifa and Black Lives Matter activists, "drug users" and sex changers" — out of the country. "It's all fun and games until your fascist state asks you to leave," Lee notes.

At the same time, Lee reflects on their doomed relationship with their ex-girlfriend Petra, the masochist to Lee's sadist: "It's probably bad — in some queer theory-type way — to wonder why I'm a sadist, but I do," Lee observes. "Like with Petra. Despite everything, I was in love with her, and I knew it from the moment I started to plan how I'd style her for her funeral viewing. I know wanting to see your lover dead and beautiful isn't normal, but it's always felt normal to me."

There's a lot going on in X , but Davis weaves the threads beautifully. The novel is elegantly structured, with seamless transitions between the present — as Lee looks high and low for X — and the past, when they discuss their childhood and young adulthood as a budding sadist. The technique amps up the narrative tension — as we learn more about where Lee came from, we become more invested in their search for X.

Lee themself is a fascinating character; introspective but not navel-gazing, and at times drily funny. Davis leaves it up to the reader to decide just how reliable they are — there are hints that they might not be telling the whole story, and maybe charming the reader the same way they charm their lovers.

As you might expect from a book set in the world of kink, there are sex scenes in X , and Davis handles them extremely well — nothing in this novel is done for the sake of shock value. (That being said, if you were scandalized by the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey , this book will almost certainly make your head explode.)

Davis is a remarkably self-assured author, and X is a dizzying, beautiful novel, and a fascinating look at a subculture that mainstream American art has frequently shied away from. It's also a grim take on what happens when a government gives in to intolerance and hate and turns its back on its own people. As Lee puts it, "In a world of certain death, what could I possibly have to fear?"

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The Poet X is a stunning amplification of the Latina experience: EW review

Xiomara Batista is often urged to bite her tongue. The “miracle” of her and her twin brother Xavier’s births to her aging Dominican parents makes Xio feel like a spectacle in her Harlem community, a constant point of conversation and judgment. This hypervisibility only increased when her body blossomed into womanly curves, forcing her to fend off unwanted advances by local boys with her fists. In contrast, the confines of her devoutly religious mother’s rules have stripped the 16-year-old of her ability to voice her own beliefs (and doubts), making her feel unheard and unseen. It’s not until she joins a slam poetry club at school that she finds a home for her words and the courage to express them freely. Through the pressure of her mother’s expectations, the comparison to “Twin’s” perfection, and her forbidden exploration of first love, Xiomara spins her perspectives into stanzas, embracing The Poet X .

Elizabeth Acevedo’s debut novel, written in verse, continuously draws in its reader with sensory-igniting imagery. This work is broken into three major sections, which are titled with Bible scriptures, juxtaposing Xiomara’s rejection of religion. In each, our heroine’s journey mimics the context of verse that proceeds it. The reader walks with Xio from submission to rebellion to liberation, and as her perspective changes, so does the stanza structure to encourage appropriate pacing in the absence of performance; the pacing of words conveys the protagonist’s mood, forcing the reader to feel as she feels and board her train of thought.

Acevedo discovered her desire to author a novel in 2012 while working as an eighth grade English teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Latinx students made up 77 percent of her school’s population, and she couldn’t understand why her students weren’t more interested in reading until a young girl made a striking observation.

“These books aren’t about us,” Acevedo recalled during the launch party for The Poet X , held at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. “They don’t look like us. They’re not from our neighborhoods. They don’t speak like us. They don’t walk through the world like us. These ain’t our books.”

In response, Acevedo showered her pupils with works by Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and other writers whose stories they could see themselves in. Still, they craved more. She’d pull from her nearly 14 years as a performance poet to recite spoken word, but she realized she wanted to gift them with something tangible; something that could live beyond the confines of their classroom. After achieving a MFA in creative writing, and several episodes of trial and error, The Poet X was born.

While struggles with faith, family, and self-acceptance are not unique teenage experiences, it is their presentation through the lens of Xiomara’s Afro-Latina heritage that makes her story a startling standout. The balance of humor and emotion with which her thoughts are expressed is charming and engaging. Acevedo has elevated the adolescent narrative; despite the age of her protagonist, she has successfully addressed themes of sexism, sexuality, and Christianity while providing a point of reference for Latinx readers searching for themselves in literature and life. A

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by Elizabeth Acevedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2018

Poignant and real, beautiful and intense, this story of a girl struggling to define herself is as powerful as Xiomara’s...

Poetry helps first-generation Dominican-American teen Xiomara Batista come into her own.

Fifteen-year old Xiomara (“See-oh-MAH-ruh,” as she constantly instructs teachers on the first day of school) is used to standing out: she’s tall with “a little too much body for a young girl.” Street harassed by both boys and grown men and just plain harassed by girls, she copes with her fists. In this novel in verse, Acevedo examines the toxicity of the “strong black woman” trope, highlighting the ways Xiomara’s seeming unbreakability doesn’t allow space for her humanity. The only place Xiomara feels like herself and heard is in her poetry—and later with her love interest, Aman (a Trinidadian immigrant who, refreshingly, is a couple inches shorter than her). At church and at home, she’s stifled by her intensely Catholic mother’s rules and fear of sexuality. Her present-but-absent father and even her brother, Twin (yes, her actual twin), are both emotionally unavailable. Though she finds support in a dedicated teacher, in Aman, and in a poetry club and spoken-word competition, it’s Xiomara herself who finally gathers the resources she needs to solve her problems. The happy ending is not a neat one, making it both realistic and satisfying. Themes as diverse as growing up first-generation American, Latinx culture, sizeism, music, burgeoning sexuality, and the power of the written and spoken word are all explored with nuance.

Pub Date: March 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-266280-4

Page Count: 368

Publisher: HarperTeen

Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT NOVELS IN VERSE

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by Elizabeth Acevedo

by Elizabeth Acevedo ; illustrated by Andrea Pippins

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PERSPECTIVES

SEEN & HEARD

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

More by Laura Nowlin

by Laura Nowlin

INDIVISIBLE

by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021

An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.

A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.

Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

More by Daniel Aleman

by Daniel Aleman

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The new Huawei MateBook X Pro is the MacBook Air killer I always wanted — but it’s missing one thing

When the matebook x pro hits, it hits right.

Early Verdict

The new MateBook X Pro keeps that same alluringly minimalist design and pitch-perfect ergonomics, while seriously upgrading the display and internals. Outside of this laptop yearning for Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, Huawei has potentially killed the MacBook Air.

Visually alluring, durable design

OLED display is mesmerizing

Touchpad and keyboard are best in class

Speakers are surprisingly great

Powerful Intel Core Ultra performance...

...but please, give me Qualcomm

Expensive at (potentially) £1,799

No 3.5mm headphone jack

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

• Cheat sheet

The Huawei MateBook X Pro has been an underrated ultraportable over the past couple of years. In fact, last year’s model is my favorite laptop of the year (which most of you can’t buy because of the US ban).

Now, the big H is back, and on the team’s three-year mission to kill the MacBook Air , they might have just done it against the M3 model with this insanely good piece of hardware. Remember when Apple called the Air “strikingly” light? Well at 2.2 pounds, the X Pro embarrasses the Cupertino crew.

We also talk about how the display on the super thin MacBook is “bright and colorful,” but the 14.2-inch flexible OLED panel here is simply jaw-dropping from every angle. Chalk that down as another check in Huawei’s column.

The keyboard feels better to type on, the trackpad is arguably the best I’ve ever used with its elegant surface and software trickery. The Morandi Blue magnesium alloy is head and shoulders above the MacBook Air — both in terms of eye-catching color and its resistance to fingerprints.

But, as I say in the headline, it’s missing one thing. Don’t get me wrong, the use of a fully-fledged Intel Core Ultra 9 185H over the weaker U-series chips is great. However, I’ve never looked at a laptop and said “This thing needs a Snapdragon X Elite ” more than I have while going hands-on with this.

Not a deal breaker (and it is still faster in multi-core performance than the Air), but Intel’s chip is indeed a little hungrier on the power draw from that 70 Wh battery, and it does spin up quite a storm under heavy loads.

And yes, while I don’t have price information, I expect it to stay at the rather steep £1,799. But taking into account its specs, luxurious design, impressive usability and screen? If you’re able to buy it, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better Windows 11 laptop than this.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Cheat sheet

• What is it? A powerful, thin and light Windows notebook
• Who is it for? For the hard workers on the go — needing something ultraportable to get intense creative work done, while needing a good screen for watching videos during long trips.
• What does it cost? Huawei has officially announced the MateBook X Pro will start from €1,999. Since this is the same as previous generations I wouldn’t be surprised if it sticks at that rather steep £1,799 (roughly $2,250).
• What do we like? At 2.2 pounds, it’s the lightest laptop I’ve ever used — but it doesn’t skip on the power with an Intel Core Ultra 9 and 32GB DDR5 RAM. This all keeps images superfluid on that drop-dead gorgeous OLED touchscreen display, and the attention paid to the delicate keyboard and gigantic touchpad is unmatched.
• What don’t we like? Expect this to be expensive. On top of that, the 40W TDP of the Intel chip (while good for performance) does mean the battery takes a little bit of a hit.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Specs

Huawei matebook x pro (2024): the ups.

As my favorite Windows laptop, the MateBook X Pro does a lot right — almost nullifying its negative aspects.

Ridiculously good looking

I mean come on. Just look at it. To take a common Britishism, the MateBook X Pro is “fit af” (that would be “a smokeshow” to my compatriots across the Atlantic). On the aesthetic face of it, not much has changed, but why would you switch up a good thing?

The same magnesium alloy shell returns (something that Huawei calls the “skin-soothing metallic body”) — carved into this curved, utilitarian shape that looks unmistakably luxurious from every angle. And this new lighter blue finish adds an alluring dash of personality to the otherwise minimalist elegance.

On top of that, this thing is durable. I’m not saying it’s like those ultra-rugged systems that you see people drop from great heights (please don’t do that), but the rough-yet-smooth surface covering the laptop has undergone a Micro-arc oxidation process to improve water resistance. What this translates into is a laptop that’s impressively resistant to fingerprints and stains.

Funny story: the reviewer’s guide every journalist received with a new product they’re testing suggested that I spill coffee on the surface, which immediately terrified me. But the photos you are looking at here were taken after I did indeed spill some prime Costa Rican dark coffee on the lid and wiped it off. Not a single bit of staining, and no fingerprints even when I was eating some Monster Munch (ask your British mates).

Plus, we can’t go any further without talking about that weight. I expected a little heft — like the 2.7-pound MacBook Air is by no means heavy, but you can feel its weight. At 2.2 pounds, this CNC Unibody is lightweight unlike anything I’ve felt before.

It’s no slouch

Let’s get technical. The MateBook X Pro packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (a nice change of pace in a sea of thin and lights like this), alongside 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD. Make no mistake about it — this is one powerful laptop.

There are for sure places where the sheer might of Apple’s M3 will peep ahead, but given what this system with a 40 W TDP is capable of, you won’t notice any of a difference. In fact, you may see certain things being a touch faster, such as opening apps, exporting 4K video, or processing more intensive tasks when under a multitasking load.

You’ll find yourself in that same level of Apple bamboozlement when people bought the M1 MacBook Air — asking yourself “How is this thing so light, yet so damn fast?”

The MateBook X Pro fuels a bunch of Huawei’s AI smarts — because of course it does since every company is using AI to improve elements of the UI. Here specifically, you’re getting an enhanced 1080p webcam picture, including eye correction to maintain eye contact. Just make sure you turn off the Beauty Mode — it makes you look rather artificial.

On top of that, you’ve got three mic noise canceling modes boosted by AI, which do a great job of eliminating background distractions during calls. And the cherry on top, the AI search works like a better version of Apple’s Spotlight search across files, apps, the web, and even data on your phone (the latter being if you have a Huawei phone).

Unmatched ergonomics

It’s not just about the tools. It’s about how you use them, and the Huawei MateBook X Pro is a key example of that — offering arguably the best typing and clicking experience I’ve ever used on a Windows laptop.

The subtle dish of every key paired with 1.5mm of travel and a soft-yet-tactile landing of each key leads to a delightful typing experience, which matches the ergonomic greatness of the MacBook Air/Pro.

But let’s talk about the massive touchpad that goes all the way up to the bottom edge like an infinity pool. Following in Apple’s footsteps, there’s no actual mechanical click, as it’s all a solid-state construction. The haptic motor mimics clicks with a strong crispness, which gives you a gorgeous response to every interaction.

However, the real beauty comes in what else Huawei pulls off with the touchpad hardware. It’s an old story from my days of testing the first iteration of this design at Laptop Mag , but I’ll retell it. When my fingers grazed the side of the touchpad, I was honestly scared I’d broken it because there was a clicking sensation.

Instead, it’s edge controls! The left edge controls screen brightness, the right changes the volume, and moving across the top will scrub back and forth through videos. Once you experience it, you’ll find it hard to go back to any other laptop — it’s kind of a “why doesn’t everybody do this” kind of innovation that I love.

You’ve also got other gesture controls, such as knocking to take a screenshot or start a recording, but I’ll cut to the chase. This continues to be the best touchpad/keyboard combination I’ve ever used on a laptop.

A true feast for the eyes and ears

The older X Pro models were already a joy to watch movies and listen to songs on, but Huawei has gone a step further with four simple letters: OLED. Put simply, this 14.2-inch display is a masterpiece to the eyes.

Pairing a super sharp 3.1K resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate, this tall, crispy screen is a color-accurate joy to work on with up to a 1000-nit peak brightness. In all the lighting conditions I threw at this, including the rare glimpse of British summer this week in the park, I could clearly see what I was working on.

And my word what a sight it is. The vibrant colors melt off the screen and the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio adds real depth to my time watching 3 Body Problem . But probably most surprising is the six-speaker setup here.

Whenever I see a laptop this skinny, tinny audio is sort of assumed of it. However, with impressive bass and a great, surrounding soundstage of well-balanced highs and mids, these speakers can overwhelm any time the fans kick up nicely.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): The downs

There’s a lot to love, but there are a couple of self-owns here. One that I’m scratching my head about, and another that just seems to be a situation of the ever changing circumstances in the great silicon wars of 2024.

The limited port array gets even more limited

Sure, I expect the number of ports to be low on something this thin and light. But removing the 3.5mm headphone jack is a little silly to say the least. Sure, I appreciate the two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the implementation of a hard webcam switch on the right, next to the USB-C. But a wired audio connection is still important in the laptop space.

I know Huawei didn’t start this trend — that’s something Dell has to answer for with its XPS 13 Plus. But come on! Would it kill companies to not snatch away the common sockets that we need and expect?

This needs Snapdragon X Elite

Intel Core Ultra chips have proven themselves to be pretty decent. In this situation, the MateBook X Pro works pretty great with its 40 W TDP. But one key thing that Intel hasn’t quite cracked yet is stamina.

The battery life doesn't quite hit the lofty heights of the MacBook Air, and that was evident in my time using the X Pro. Cracking on with my standard workload of several Chrome windows/tabs, regular Photoshop use, and Apple Music playing in the background, the 70 Wh cell in here dropped from 100% to around 25% in roughly six hours.

I’m sure I could’ve gotten more out of it under less pressure like just binge-watching episodes of Ted Lasso , but the key reason behind this is that Core Ultra has quite the power draw. This is where I drop the fact that the Snapdragon X Elite manages to beat Intel’s chipsets while drawing 65% less power at the same time.

And when you think of the 5 laptops that are set to launch with Qualcomm’s chipset — all in the ultraportable category — it’s almost as if the slender frame of the X Pro is crying out for this Arm CPU. If there is a chance for Huawei to change course (hell, you could even call it the MateBook X Elite), now’s the time to do so.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Verdict

If you come at the king, you best not miss, and Huawei has come correct with the MateBook X Pro — putting the M3 MacBook Air on notice. Matching its performance, while being lighter, packing a gorgeous OLED panel, and the best keyboard/touchpad combo I’ve used on a Windows laptop, Apple is clearly in its sights and the shot’s been taken.

It’s not perfect, though, with the omission of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Snapdragon X Elite being what’s needed for Huawei to jump that final hurdle and challenge Cupertino on battery life. But for what this pricey device is, if you have the money (and you don’t live in the US), this is my favorite Windows laptop.

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 Review: Lightweight, Long-Running OLED Laptop for Less

It's a boon to get an OLED display in such a portable package with great battery life for roughly $1,000, but the fit and finish feel decidedly midrange.

Our Experts

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425

• Good OLED display for the price
• Lightweight for a 14-inch laptop
• Long battery life
• Aluminum frame a bit flimsy
• Display hinge isn't great
• Mediocre touchpad

Spend $1,000 on a laptop and you'll generally end up with a mainstream model with peppy application performance inside an aluminum chassis with a decent IPS display. In some instances, you can find a higher-resolution IPS panel like we saw recently with the 2.2K IPS display on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus or an OLED panel as supplied by the Lenovo Slim 7i . The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 follows a recipe similar to that of the Slim 7i with its 14-inch OLED touch display powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor. Just by virtue of the superior fidelity of its OLED display, the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 stands out from the midrange laptop crowd but also feels like a lesser version of the Slim 7i.

The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 is lighter and longer running than the Slim 7i, but this increased portability comes at the expense of build quality. The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425's aluminum enclosure suffers from a not insignificant amount of flex and doesn't feel nearly as sturdy as the Slim 7i's rigid case. The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425's audio output also pales in comparison to the sound of the Slim 7i's quad speakers. Despite these demerits, the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 still remains a strong contender among mainstream laptops at its price of $1,050. It's just that the Lenovo Slim 7i offers an even better package and usually for less.

The Q425 model of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is a fixed configuration available at Best Buy for $1,050 . It features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, integrated Intel Arc graphics and a 1TB SSD. The 14-inch OLED display features a 1,920x1,200-pixel, a standard 60Hz refresh rate and touch support. A less expensive Q415 model sells for $800 at Best Buy . It offers the same OLED display but with a Core Ultra 5 135H CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. 

The higher-end Q425 model drops to as low as $800 when it's on sale at Best Buy, but it's usually found at its full price of $1,050.

The Asus ZenBook 14 OLED Q415 and Q425 are unavailable in the UK or Australia, but the similar ZenBook 14 OLED UX3405 can be found. It's based on the same Core Ultra 7 155H chip but offers a 14-inch OLED with a higher-res 2.8K resolution. The ZenBook 14 OLED UX3405 starts at £1,100 in the UK and AU$1,899 in Australia .

In testing, the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 proved to be a capable mainstream performer. It was faster than the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus and Lenovo Slim 7i on our application benchmarks but lagged behind each on our graphics tests. In general, it felt speedy during general Windows use and handled various multitasking scenarios without any hiccups or lags while staying cool and quiet during operation. 

It also produced an excellent result in battery testing, lasting more than 13 hours on our online video streaming battery drain test. That's an impressive runtime for any laptop, especially for an OLED model. Granted, the lower-resolution and slower 60Hz refresh help it run longer than higher-end OLED laptops with higher-resolution, 120Hz panels that require more power, but the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 is still a rarity among laptops by providing both an OLED display and long battery life.

Understated and lightweight but a bit flimsy

The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425's all-metal chassis is charcoal gray with a charcoal gray keyboard to match. There is minimal branding, and the geometric lines that adorn the lid of many Asus laptops are absent. The display features edge-to-edge glass that adds an air of luxury to the laptop's overall look. The seamless display covering looks way more modern and premium than the clunky, plastic bezels found on many laptops at this price. 

The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 is one of the most portable 14-inch laptops I've tested and nearly as lightweight as the slightly smaller 13.6-inch MacBook Air . At just 2.9 pounds, the Zenbook 14 is just a hair heavier than the 2.7-pound MacBook Air. And measuring 12.3 inches wide by 8.7 inches deep by 0.6-inch thick, it has the same dimensions as the Lenovo Slim 7i but is lighter. It's also one of few 14-inch laptops that weighs less than 3 pounds. The Slim 7i and HP Spectre x360 14 each weigh 3.2 pounds, and the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus weighs 3.5 pounds. The 14-inch model closest in weight to the Zenbook 14 is the 3-pound Acer Swift Go 14 .

Lighter isn't always better, though. I'd argue it's better to tote around a few extra ounces with the Slim 7i's superior build quality. Its case is much more rigid than the Zenbook 14's, whose thin aluminum surfaces flex too much to my liking. The top cover behind the display doesn't bend like the lids on many thin laptops, but it still feels flimsier than the Slim 7i because of the flex that can be felt. 

When you pick up the laptop, you can feel both the top and bottom covers flex between your thumb and fingers, which doesn't inspire confidence in its durability. However, Asus claims the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 passes MIL-STD 810H ruggedness standards for protection against various abuses such as drops, vibration, shock, dust and extreme temperatures. The Slim 7i offers the same military-grade ruggedness and remains my choice between this pair of mainstream 14-inch OLED laptops.

Thankfully, the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425's keyboard deck is firmer than its top or bottom panels, with less flex under the keys and an enjoyable typing experience. The key travel is shallow, but there's enough bounce that my typing felt fast and accurate. The mechanical touchpad, however, is merely average. It accurately recorded my swipes, pinches and other mousing gestures, but its click response has a bit too much travel, especially along its bottom edge. It suffers from the "diving board" effect, where clicks feel too firm near its top edge and too soft toward its bottom edge.

Somehow, the Zenbook 14's hinge felt both too firm and too weak. I could lift the lid with one finger, but once the display reached about 45 degrees -- about halfway to fully open -- it was too stiff to continue without lifting the front end, eventually slamming back down on my desk when I let go once hitting roughly 90 degrees. And once I had the laptop opened, the hinge wasn't strong enough to prevent screen wobble. There's always some wobble with a laptop's display, but I'd classify the Zenbook 14 as having an above-average amount.

The display itself is excellent, though; an appreciated inclusion at the Zenbook 14 OLED's price. It's basically the same specs as the OLED panel we saw on the Slim 7i -- a 14-inch, 16:10 display with a 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution, 60Hz refresh rate and touch support. That's a lower resolution and slower refresh rate than you'll find on pricier OLED models, but those are the tradeoffs you must make to get an OLED display and remain in the ballpark of $1,000. Text isn't as sharp as you get with the 2.2K display on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, but the OLED display provides better contrast, deeper black levels and more vivid colors than you get with an IPS LCD display. 

In testing with a SpyderX Elite colorimeter, the display covered 100% of the sRGB and P3 color spaces and 95% of Adobe RGB. I measured a peak brightness of 340 nits, which falls short of the display's 400-nit rating. It's also less than the 382 nits that the Slim 7i reached in testing. 

With its excellent contrast, however, an OLED doesn't need to be as bright to stay visible in direct light as an IPS. I was able to use the Zenbook 14 outdoors on a bright but hazy day, as well as many mornings in my sunny breakfast nook. 

The Zenbook 14's display may be nearly identical to the Slim 7i's, but its speakers are not. The sound produced by the Zenbook 14's stereo speakers isn't nearly as full as the audio output I experienced with the Slim 7i's quad-speaker array. They may be Harman Kardon-tuned speakers, but they deliver typical tinny laptop sound. The Zenbook can hit an impressive volume, but quality begins to degrade quickly as you push the volume past 50%.

The 1080p webcam produces crisp, well-balanced images and has an IR sensor, so you can use it with Windows Hello for easy, secure logins without needing to key in passwords. The laptop lacks a fingerprint reader, leaving facial recognition from the webcam as the only biometric option for logins. The webcam also features a physical shutter, so you can protect your privacy when the camera isn't in use. It's a feature I always like to see on a laptop.

The Zenbook 14's port selection mirrors that of the Slim 7i, offering a useful mix of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C and USB-A connectivity and an HDMI out and headphone jack. The only absence some buyers might miss is an SD card slot. Those buyers would likely be creative hobbyists eyeing the Zenbook 14 as an inexpensive OLED laptop for light media editing and content creation. I say "light" because graphics pros looking for a content-creation laptop will want more of a graphics punch than what's afforded by the integrated Intel Arc GPU.

Overall, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 offers strong value for its price. You get capable overall performance from the Core Ultra 7 processor and Intel Arc graphics, along with great battery life. And getting an OLED display at this price is a boon. It's just that the Lenovo Slim 7i offers a nearly identical OLED display powered by a similar configuration with twice the RAM inside a higher-quality enclosure. The Slim 7i is a better deal at  $1,000 at Costco than the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 is at Best Buy for $1,050. Then again, the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 can occasionally be found on sale at Best Buy for $800, where it becomes a more attractive proposition and perhaps the better buy if you value longer battery life more than build quality.

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The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computerlike devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include  Primate Labs Geekbench 6 , Cinebench R23 , PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra . 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found on our How We Test Computers page. 

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X: A Novel Paperback – June 28, 2022

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• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Catapult
• Publication date June 28, 2022
• Dimensions 5.51 x 0.76 x 8.23 inches
• ISBN-10 1646220935
• ISBN-13 978-1646220939
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Catapult (June 28, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1646220935
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1646220939
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.76 x 8.23 inches
• #1,357 in Lawyers & Criminals Humor
• #5,839 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
• #7,212 in Fiction Satire

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Davey davis.

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6 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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It’s a happy coincidence that we recommend Becca Rothfeld’s essay collection “All Things Are Too Small” — a critic’s manifesto “in praise of excess,” as her subtitle has it — in the same week that we also recommend Justin Taylor’s maximalist new novel “Reboot,” an exuberant satire of modern society that stuffs everything from fandom to TV retreads to the rise of conspiracy culture into its craw. I don’t know if Rothfeld has read Taylor’s novel, but I get the feeling she would approve. Maybe you will too: In the spirit of “more, bigger, louder,” why not pick those up together?

Our other recommendations this week include a queer baseball romance novel, an up-to-the-minute story about a widower running for the presidency of his local labor union, a graphic novelist’s collection of spare visual stories and, in nonfiction, a foreign policy journalist’s sobering look at global politics in the 21st century. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

REBOOT Justin Taylor

This satire of modern media and pop culture follows a former child actor who is trying to revive the TV show that made him famous. Taylor delves into the worlds of online fandom while exploring the inner life of a man seeking redemption — and something meaningful to do.

“His book is, in part, a performance of culture, a mirror America complete with its own highly imagined myths, yet one still rooted in the Second Great Awakening and the country’s earliest literature. It’s a performance full of wit and rigor.”

From Joshua Ferris’s review

Pantheon | $28

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY Cat Sebastian

When a grieving reporter falls for the struggling baseball player he’s been assigned to write about, their romance is like watching a Labrador puppy fall in love with a pampered Persian cat: all eager impulse on one side and arch contrariness on the other.

“People think the ending is what defines a romance, and it does, but that’s not what a romance is for. The end is where you stop, but the journey is why you go. … If you read one romance this spring, make it this one.”

From Olivia Waite’s romance column

Avon | Paperback, $18.99

ALL THINGS ARE TOO SMALL: Essays in Praise of Excess Becca Rothfeld

A striking debut by a young critic who has been heralded as a throwback to an era of livelier discourse. Rothfeld has published widely and works currently as a nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post; her interests range far, but these essays are united by a plea for more excess in all things, especially thought.

“Splendidly immodest in its neo-Romantic agenda — to tear down minimalism and puritanism in its many current varieties. … A carnival of high-low allusion and analysis.”

From David Gates’s review

Metropolitan Books | $27.99

THE RETURN OF GREAT POWERS: Russia, China, and the Next World War Jim Sciutto

Sciutto’s absorbing account of 21st-century brinkmanship takes readers from Ukraine in the days and hours ahead of Russia’s invasion to the waters of the Taiwan Strait where Chinese jets flying overhead raise tensions across the region. It’s a book that should be read by every legislator or presidential nominee sufficiently deluded to think that returning America to its isolationist past or making chummy with Putin is a viable option in today’s world.

“Enough to send those with a front-row view into the old basement bomb shelter. … The stuff of unholy nightmares.”

From Scott Anderson’s review

Dutton | $30

THE SPOILED HEART Sunjeev Sahota

Sahota’s novel is a bracing study of a middle-aged man’s downfall. A grieving widower seems to finally be turning things around for himself as he runs for the top job at his labor union and pursues a love interest. But his election campaign gets entangled in identity politics, and his troubles quickly multiply.

“Sahota has a surgeon’s dexterous hands, and the reader senses his confidence. … A plot-packed, propulsive story.”

From Caoilinn Hughes’s review

Viking | $29

SPIRAL AND OTHER STORIES Aidan Koch

The lush, sparsely worded work of this award-winning graphic novelist less resembles anything recognizably “comic book” than it does a sort of dreamlike oasis of art. Her latest piece of masterful minimalism, constructed from sensuous washes of watercolor, pencil, crayon and collage, pulses with bright pigment and tender melancholy.

“Many of these pages are purely abstract, but when Koch draws details, it’s in startlingly specific and consistent contours that give these stories a breadth of character as well as depiction.”

From Sam Thielman’s graphic novels column

New York Review Comics | $24.95

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the most challenged books in the United States. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it .

Joan Didion’s distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here are her essential works .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Food & Function

Inhibitory effect of extracts from edible parts of nuts on α-amylase activity: a systematic review †.

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, BASE Facility, Level 1, 264 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, VIC 3168, Australia E-mail: [email protected]

b Victorian Heart Institute, Monash University, 631 Blackburn Road, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia

c School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia

Elevated blood glucose concentration is a risk factor for developing metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance, leading to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Nuts have the potential to inhibit α-amylase activity, and so lower postprandial glucose, due to their content of polyphenols and other bioactive compounds. We conducted a systematic literature review to assess the ability of extracts from commonly consumed edible parts of nuts to inhibit α-amylase. Among the 31 included papers, only four utilised human α-amylases. These papers indicated that polyphenol-rich chestnut skin extracts exhibited strong inhibition of both human salivary and pancreatic α-amylases, and that a polyphenol-rich almond skin extract was a potent inhibitor of human salivary α-amylase. The majority of the reviewed studies utilised porcine pancreatic α-amylase, which has ∼86% sequence homology with the corresponding human enzyme but with some key amino acid variations located within the active site. Polyphenol-rich extracts from chestnut, almond, kola nut, pecan and walnut, and peptides isolated from cashew, inhibited porcine pancreatic α-amylase. Some studies used α-amylases sourced from fungi or bacteria, outcomes from which are entirely irrelevant to human health, as they have no sequence homology with the human enzyme. Given the limited research involving human α-amylases, and the differences in inhibition compared to porcine enzymes and especially enzymes from microorganisms, it is recommended that future in vitro experiments place greater emphasis on utilising enzymes sourced from humans to facilitate a reliable prediction of effects in intervention studies.

• This article is part of the themed collection: Food & Function Review Articles 2024

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Inhibitory effect of extracts from edible parts of nuts on α-amylase activity: a systematic review

M. Farazi, M. J. Houghton, B. R. Cardoso, M. Murray and G. Williamson, Food Funct. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4FO00414K

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