Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Wed Nov 30 00:00:00 CST 2022)

Sixteen-year-old Joe Garbe leaves the family farm, finding trouble and romance in Chicago during the Great Depression.Arriving by train, Joe meets his cousin, Bernie, at the station and is instantly enamored by the sights and sounds of the city. Thanks to Bernie, Joe lands a job in the kitchen of the Lago Vista hotel, where he now meets Eddie Zambriskie. Their chemistry is palpable from the start, and they start dating. Meanwhile, Joe's desperate need to settle his family's debts back home in Kickapoo gets him involved in an underhanded scheme: His role is to take a French conversation class with wealthy people who will be sailing to Europe on vacation and gather information about his classmates' names and travel dates so that Bernie's criminal confederates can burgle their homes while they're away. This ruse is complicated by Joe's love affair with Raymond Kenrick, one of his marks, who introduces him to kissing, so-called pansy parlors, and sex. The emotionally nuanced characters, most of whom are presumed White, navigate stages of guilt, paranoia, and remorse as they swindle as a means of survival-with tragically beautiful results. Through passionate, cinematic scenes, Klise poignantly captures the fears and joys of being gay in this polished work of historical fiction.A transportive, thrillingly queer adventure. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)

ALA Booklist (Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 CST 2023)

June 1934, Chicago's Lasalle Street railroad station. Enter 16-year-old Joe Garbe, fresh off the train from Kickapoo, Illinois. Joe's come to the big city to take a job his 19-year-old cousin Bernie has secured for him. It's the height of the Great Depression, and Joe's plan is to earn enough money to save the family farm and go to college. Anxious for more money, he agrees to participate in a nefarious scheme that leads him to meet wealthy Raymond, who ke Joe gay. The two boys secretly begin a relationship, which leads to something horrible that might result in Joe's going to prison. Will he, or will he escape to Kickapoo? Klise (The Art of Secrets, 2014) has done an excellent job of evoking his 1930s setting, which is enhanced by period diction: "golly," "a looker," "glad rags," "chow," etc. His story is engaging, and readers will root for innocent Joe and hope for a fate more agreeable than a return to closeted life down on the farm.

Horn Book (Tue May 09 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Intent on saving his family farm during the Great Depression, sixteen-year-old Joe arrives in Chicago to work and send money home. Thanks to the cousin he's staying with, he has two jobs lined up. One is working in the kitchen of a hotel. The other involves taking French classes at a local church; collecting his wealthy classmates' names, addresses, and travel dates; and passing the information along to criminals who plan to rob the homes while their occupants are vacationing abroad. Despite his reservations, Joe goes along with the scheme and is drawn inexorably into a web of lies, deceit, blackmail, and murder. With elements of noir, the plot is further complicated by a love triangle: Eddie makes deliveries to the hotel, Raymond is in his French class, and Joe becomes romantically involved with both. As trouble catches up to Joe, he's forced to flee Chicago, but he's reluctant to leave the queer community he's found and finds little solace in the idea of returning home. Klise deftly manages to balance a number of elements in Joe's first-person narration: his gradual transition from wide-eyed innocence toward criminal activity, the complicated motivations of secondary characters, convincing dialogue, and an aura of danger and suspense. The historical setting and secretly queer characters may appeal to fans of Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club (rev. 3/21). An author's note gives brief historical background and suggestions for further reading. Jonathan Hunt

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Sixteen-year-old Joe Garbe leaves the family farm, finding trouble and romance in Chicago during the Great Depression.Arriving by train, Joe meets his cousin, Bernie, at the station and is instantly enamored by the sights and sounds of the city. Thanks to Bernie, Joe lands a job in the kitchen of the Lago Vista hotel, where he now meets Eddie Zambriskie. Their chemistry is palpable from the start, and they start dating. Meanwhile, Joe's desperate need to settle his family's debts back home in Kickapoo gets him involved in an underhanded scheme: His role is to take a French conversation class with wealthy people who will be sailing to Europe on vacation and gather information about his classmates' names and travel dates so that Bernie's criminal confederates can burgle their homes while they're away. This ruse is complicated by Joe's love affair with Raymond Kenrick, one of his marks, who introduces him to kissing, so-called pansy parlors, and sex. The emotionally nuanced characters, most of whom are presumed White, navigate stages of guilt, paranoia, and remorse as they swindle as a means of survival-with tragically beautiful results. Through passionate, cinematic scenes, Klise poignantly captures the fears and joys of being gay in this polished work of historical fiction.A transportive, thrillingly queer adventure. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Klise (When Love Comes to Town) uniquely portrays 1934 Chicago through the eyes of queer 16-year-old Joe Garbe as he wrestles with moral ambiguity, palpable desperation, and a deep longing for queer love and community in this gritty noir novel. Joe plans to spend the summer in Chicago with his cousin Bernie working in the Lago Vista’s hotel kitchen and sending money back to his mother to help revive their crumbling Illinois country farm. He doesn’t expect to get involved in the city’s underground queer subculture or to become romantically entangled with two other young men seeking connection. But when Joe gets wrapped up in one of Bernie’s illicit money-making schemes, which dangerously intersects with Joe’s secret queer identity, the potential consequences endanger Joe’s desired future. Pulling from a wealth of research, as described in an author’s note, Klise details an arresting narrative replete with historical minutiae and slang (“Everything around us looked swell, marble walls and brass ticket counters”) to provide a mesmerizing snapshot of 1930s Chicago via a narrative that is atmospheric and economically told. Joe cues as white. Ages 13–17. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Feb.)